Subversion And Containment:A New Historicist Interpretation On The Human Stain

Philip Roth is one of the most talented and thoughtful Jewish American writers.His works are characterized by abundant subject matters,profound implied meanings and flexible,varied writing styles,with direct involvement in the most sensitive and pointed matters in American history and society,especially the issues of Jewish immigration,such as the assimilation and dissimilation,the betrayal and return of identity,the estrangement between two generations of immigrants,the aberrance of social values and morality.Roth always roots his literary creation into American history and delves into the history's irreversible impacts on those people who have suffered identity crisis,which is in accordance with New Historicism and stressed the interaction between text and history.As the last book of his American Trilogy,The Human Stain puts the characters into specific historical and political context,from which we can catch the historical and cultural background of contemporary America.It chronicles the life of Coleman Silk,a black professor who has been passing for white for decades;the whole storyline unfolds through the tracing and narration of Coleman's friend Nathan Zuckerman,the secrets of Coleman and other major characters are gradually exposed as the story develops.Through the view of Nathan,Roth combines the fates of characters with the concrete historical context and implies that a person's fate is always inevitably subjected to history under the influence of postwar trauma,racism,illusory American Dream,absurd “political correctness” frenzy and extreme individualism.The thesis intends to probe into the close relation between Roth's text and American history and society from the perspective of New Historicism and make a detailed analysis on The Human Stain according to the conceptions of “Subversion” and “Containment” raised by New Historicist Greenblatt.There are five chapters in the thesis.Chapter One briefly introduces the literary career of Philip Roth and The Human Stain;it points out the structure and significance of the research.Chapter Two expounds New Historicism and focuses on the conceptions of “subversion” and “containment” and the research status of the novel.Chapter Three shows the subversion of ruling ideologies;it contains two sections: section one is the subversion of black-white power relation and section two is the subversion of American Dream.Chapter Four reveals the containment from American society and history,which is demonstrated from four aspects: “political correctness” frenzy,social ethics and taboos,family history and morals,extreme racism and individualism.Chapter Five summarizes the whole thesis and indicates the possibility of further research.