MY NAME IS HOLOCAUST : NOTIONS OF JEWISH RESPONSIBILITY IN PHILIP ROTH'S ZUCKERMAN BOUND

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to explore, in Philip Roth's Zuckerman Bound, how ideas of responsibility and loyalty relate to a Jewish-American artist writing fiction about his community, especially in the light of all that has happened to the Jew in the twentieth century. It will focus on the theme of fiction-making in the post-Holocaust era, and how, as a second-generation American Jew whose experiences have nothing to do with the Holocaust, the writer strives to be true to his vocation (''the integrity of his discourse") as well as professing to remain a responsible member of his community and a loyal son to his parents. It will deal with the theme of fiction versus reality -- how personal myths engender differing perceptions of the truth, and sometimes even translate fiction to fact. It examines how this leads to trouble for the writer in the form of Jewish and non-Jewish detractors, and how the writer copes with his predicament -- or does not cope. All this is filtered through the lens of Roth's comic vision, which uncannily makes us see serious truths about ourselves, and the society in which we live.