The Problem Of Anti-identity Under Symbol Ideographic Mechanism In Philip Roth's The Human Stain

"Literary Myth Alive" Philip Roth is the soul representative in the third generation of the American Jewish literature writers. His works keep tightly with the times; playfulness and seriousness coexist in his works; identity problem runs through the text and lends it endless aesthetic value. The Human Stain (2000) published in the beginning of 21st century turns the writing perspective from the Jewish people to the noble white people and black people who shares the similar condition with Jews in America. The fiction writes about identity, human nature, Oedipus tragedy, political elements and etc. The anti-identity problems which frequently appear in the novel not only reflect the hypocrisy of American "Garden of Eden" and human existent filth. but also highlight Roth's extraordinary writing skills——paradoxical writing and profound artistic aesthetics thought. Currently, in the identity study of this work, domestic and international researches attach great importance to the "identity passing" and "identity recognition and seeking", but lack the phenomenon research of the anti-identity problem and its interaction with identity.Living in the so called modern "Garden of Eden", characters in the fiction and real people have multiple identities. They constantly undergo the identity construction and deconstruction, establishment and violation in a loss. In life journey, people always face the predicament of contradiction coexistence and binary opposition. Through frictional collision, humanity and society generates sparkle; the dialogue between identity and anti-identity forms tension, which enriches the meaning construction of the novel. With the symbol ideographic mechanism, this dissertation respectively analyzes the internal anti-identity phenomenons of "sender"-text "receiver", attempts to explore the tension raised between identity and anti-identity:1. By reading the text The Human Stain intensively, this thesis analyzes the identity and anti-identity phenomenons appeared in the text combining with social, cultural and historical background; 2. In analyzing the "sender" Roth, this dissertation digs the reasons why these phenomenons appeared from the perspective of writing.3. It attempts to illuminate the identity reasons why the readers as "receivers" have different interpretations against the text meaning. Through researching anti-identity problems of each character in the novel, the author tries to answer the question interested by Roth the most in writing——why, how, and under what kinds of condition, people will violate in action the identity that he/she thinks is wonderful, or others think he/she should become. And this paper further discusses the filth brought to the people by the hypocritic society and the inflated "American Dream" and analyzes the functions of human primitive nature under the social filth in Roth's fictions. This dissertation hopes to reveal the profound connotation of Roth's works from one side and provide positive reference for domestic study on foreign literature.