Philip Roth's Autobiographical Writing Research

Philip Milton Roth is one of the most important writers in contemporary American Jewish literature.During his more than half century of writing career,most of Roth's works are strongly autobiographical.Many critics accused Roth of focusing only on himself and having a narrow writing vision.They believed that his alternate writing style between fact and fiction was a typical "writer narcissism" narrative.In fact,the connotation of Roth's autobiographical writing is much more than that.Through the autobiographical writing of personal experience and group experience,Roth's creative vision involves the exploration of identity,the observation of history,and other aspects,the themes of these works also cover the aspects of Jewish marriage,Jewish family,morality,and anti-Semitic movement,touches the problems such as Jewish spiritual confusion,Jewish individual consciousness,cultural heritage,and historical recognition.Therefore,a comprehensive discussion of Roth's autobiographical writing will help us to further understand his unique creative technique and enrich the value of his works.Roth's autobiographical writing is not motivated by a conscious consciousness,but by multiple influencing elements.In the post-modern context,the elimination of the boundary between autobiography and fiction and the rise of non-fiction have exerted a profound influence on Roth's autobiographical writing.The inherent shortcomings of the American minority autobiographical tradition also prompt Roth to write in an autobiographical way that fully presents the reality of contemporary Jewish life.The controversy and autobiographical interpretation caused by his early works are the direct reasons for Roth's autobiographical writing,and the sharp criticism of the Jewish community has gradually become an important theme in Roth's autobiographical works and runs throughout his creation.In addition,Roth's unique literary creation concept,which emphasizes the "the isomorphism of life and fiction","the writer's self and the imagination self","the presence and absence of the writer",also guides his autobiographical writing.The themes of Roth's autobiographical works are: "Men,Writers,Jews".By the continuous writing of individual experience,Roth has made an in-depth exploration of self-identity from these three perspectives.In reviewing his love experience and marital life,Roth not only re-examines his past,but also makes use of autobiographical figures to observe contemporary American Jews who are striving to realize themselves and pursue male identity.By retrospecting his career as a writer and revealing his creative dilemmas,Roth,while responding to the early criticism,reflects on his early bold and free authorship and assumes the moral responsibility to write about others.As a Jewish diaspora,Roth also uses his travel experience in Israel as a material to mold his dualpersonality on the basis of his true self,thus testing and exploring the national identity of contemporary American Jews in many dimensions and affirming the non-fixed nature of contemporary identity.In addition to the writing of individual experiences,Roth's autobiographical writing also includes the writing of group experiences and embodies profound historical care.In the memoir of his father,Roth reviewed the struggles of his grandparents,reflected on the experiences of family groups,restored a broad family history,and emphasized its important significance to the Jewish individual.In the face of heavy national disaster,Roth started from the real experience of different groups and presents the impact of the holocaust on the life of contemporary people in a multi-dimensional autobiographical writing,which highlights his profound examination and unique thinking on the national history.In order to set up a different historical "reality",Roth introduced himself and his family into a fictitious history.By recreating the experience of the Jewish community in the United States in a specific historical stage,Roth truly "recorded" the great threat of anti-Semitism in the history of the United States and alerted the present and future while reflecting on the history of the country.It can be said that Roth's autobiographical works have become a channel for people to understand the psychology and the life of contemporary American Jews.Within the narrow field of autobiographical writing,Roth's writing has opened up a variety of forms of expression in American Jewish literature.