The Philip Roth Society

Philip Roth Society Panels at the 2013 ALA

admin — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:24:06 +0000

This year at the 24th annual American Literature Association Conference, the Philip Roth Society will sponsor two sessions and hold its annual business meeting. This year’s event will take place on May 23-26, at the Westin Copley Place in Boston, MA. The schedule for the events is:

Friday May 24, 2013 – 11:10 – 12:30

Session 9-O Philip Roth in Retirement: A Roundtable Discussion (Parliament 7th Floor)

Moderator: David Gooblar, Mount Mercy University

1.Kasia Boddy, Cambridge University

2.Ken Gordon, Independent Scholar

3.Timothy Parrish, Florida State University

4.Aimee Pozorski, Central Connecticut State University

Saturday May 25, 2013 – 9:30-10:50am

Session 15-E Philip Roth and Narrative (St George D 3rd Floor)

Chair: Miriam Jaffe-Foger, Rutgers University

1. “‘An Astonishing Farce of Misperception’: A Comparison of American Pastoral and Tevye the Dairyman, or Philip Roth’s Epilogue to Fiddler on the Roof,” Joseph Perr, Independent Scholar

 2. “‘the illusion of life’: Re-thinking the Relationship Between Zuckerman as an Artist and Ira as a Propagandist in I Married a Communist,” Andy Connolly, Pace University

3. “‘Life is and’: The Counterlife’s Invitation to Reading as Hospitality,” Frederick Coye Heard, University of Texas at Austin

 4. “The End of an Era: Late Style and Holocaust Memory in Philip Roth’s Exit Ghost,” Anthony Wexler, Johns Hopkins University

Saturday May 25, 2013 – 11:00-12:20 am

Business Meeting: Philip Roth Society (Courier 7th Floor)

For more information on the conference, visit the American Literature Association website.

Helping Himself and Others

admin — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:05:33 +0000

Last week Philip Roth received the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service Award. According to the Washington Post, Roth was cited not only for his own work, such as Portnoy’s Complaint and American Pastoral, but also for his advocacy in the 1970s and 1980s for writers in Czechoslovakia and other Eastern bloc countries during the Cold War. Be sure to read the Washington Post‘s story for more details.

CFP – Philip Roth: Across Cultures, across Disciplines

admin — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:21:32 +0000

Philip Roth: Across Cultures, across Disciplines

The Philip Roth Society announces a call for papers for the conference “Philip Roth: Across Cultures, across Disciplines” at the University of St.Gallen in Switzerland (http://www.unisg.ch). The conference will take place June 13-14 (Friday and Saturday), 2014.

Be it his acerbic portrayal of American politics and its impact on ordinary citizens, his constant play with historiography’s fictitiousness, the references to art and music, or his insight into the psycho-analyzed mind, Philip Roth’s novels have reached a scholarly audience beyond departments of literature and have been celebrated by readers across the world. Wherein consists Roth’s transdisciplinary and transcultural appeal? What do readers from different disciplines gain from reading Roth? What are the limits and limitations of an interdisciplinary approach to Roth’s work? How is Roth read, interpreted, and challenged in different cultures? These are only a few of the question that shall be addressed during our conference. We particularly welcome contributions on Roth from different academic disciplines, but also new takes on “International Roth” as well as fresh insights into his life and fiction.

The conference will be organized around panels with three to four papers, poster sessions, and plenary talks. Proposals of no more than 250 words are invited for 20-minute papers and poster contributions; please specify what type of contribution you would like to make. You are likewise welcome to apply as a discussant. Please send your abstracts by e-mail to the conference organizer, Claudia Franziska Brühwiler at roth.hsg2014@gmail.com. Please include your professional affiliation or association status, along with full contact details. All presenters selected for the conference must be, or must become members of the Philip Roth Society. No participation fee will be charged, but you may be asked to pay a small fee for meals and for optional tours of the town.

Deadline for proposals is October 30, 2013; early applications are encouraged and welcome.

About the venue: St.Gallen is located a one-hour train ride from Zurich Airport, a four-hour train ride from Munich and Geneva.

Philip Roth Remembers Teacher and Friend, Bob Lowenstein

admin — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:30:52 +0000

In a piece published in The New York Times, Philip Roth remembers and pays tribute to his friend and former teacher, Bob Lowenstein, the model for Murray Ringold in Roth’s 1998 novel, I Married a Communist. See the entire essay on The New York Times website in the Opinion section.

Spring 2013 Issue of Philip Roth Studies

admin — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:28:43 +0000

The latest issue of Philip Roth Studies (Vol. 9, No. 1) has just been published, and members of the Roth Society, if they do not already have their copies, should be receiving them soon. This one is a special issue, “Philip Roth between Past and Future,” guest edited by Pia Masiero and with a cover image by Andrea Ventura. The table of contents includes:

Editor’s Column – Derek Parker Royal
Introduction: Philip Roth between Past and Future – Pia Masiero
Philip Roth’s Our Gang, the Politics of Intertexuality and the Complexities of Cultural Memory – Till Kinzel
Fathers and Writers: Kafka’s “Letter to His Father” and Philip Roth’s Non-Fiction – Michael Kimmage
“Between Dystopia and Allohistory: The Ending of Roth’s The Plot Against America – Leona Toker
Expelled Once Again: The Failure of the Fantasized Self in Philip Roth’s Nemesis – Victoria Aarons
Roth, Ethics and the Carnival – Rémi Astruc
The Fate of Sex: Late Style and “The Chaos of Eros” – Ira Nadel
“I wanted to be humanish: manly, a man”: Morality, Shame, and Masculinity in Philip Roth’s My Life as a Man – Maggie McKinley (Winner of the 2011 Siegel/McDaniel Award)
Book Reviews

For more information on Philip Roth Studies, contact the executive editor at rothstudies@rothsociety.org. To subscribe to the journal you may do so through the Philip Roth Society, or by contacting Purdue University Press.

C-SPANning Philip Roth’s 80th Birthday

admin — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:09:25 +0000

C-SPAN has made available online a recording of the events that took place at the Newark Museum on March 19th, the occasion of Philip Roth’s 80th birthday. As you will see, the first part of the event included speakers discussing Roth’s life and work, and the second part included an address by Roth himself.

The recording was originally aired on C-SPAN2 as part of their BookTV programming.

Philip Roth’s Birthday and Media Fenzy

admin — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 21:47:36 +0000

This week there has been a veritable media frenzy focused the 80th birthday of Philip Roth, which was on Tuesday, March 19th. In the days leading up to and following that date — and thanks in part to the efforts of the Philip Roth Society’s Roth@80 conference — a variety of media outlets covered the occasion with news reports, blog postings, author profiles, retrospectives, interviews, roundtable discussions, and videotaped activities surrounding the novelist’s birthday. The coverage almost rivals that of the reportage devoted to Roth’s recent announcement of retirement. Some of those stories can be found in:

And there will certainly be more stories in the coming days, especially given the completion of the Philip Roth Collection from the Library of America (nine volumes) as well as the upcoming PBS broadcast (March 29th) of the film Philip Roth: Unmasked.

Philip Roth, the Modern Jewish Predicament, and Tough Talk

admin — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:32:16 +0000

On Monday, March 18, literary critic Adam Kirsch, communications scholar Liel Leibovitz, and professor of Jewish Civilization Jacques Berlinerblau talked about Philip Roth’s prodigious fictional output and its attendant provocations. Aside from assessing his contributions to literature, this panel also scrutinized Roth’s survey of the modern Jewish predicament. The event also turned into a chance to listen to Liel Leibovitz and Adam Kirsch duke it out over Philip Roth’s legacy while Jacques Berlinerblau calmly mediated.

The event was co-sponsored by The Posen Foundation and the Jewish Cultural Studies Program at The New School for Public Engagement. It was made possible by the generous support of The Posen Foundation.

Washington DC Celebrates Philip Roth’s 80th Birthday

admin — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 13:28:42 +0000

As American novelist, Philip Roth, celebrates his 80th birthday his literary works and his contribution to literature is discussed by two scholars that have studied him: Derek Parker Royal and Jacques Berlinerblau. Watch the video of this public conversation, which was part of the event held at Georgetown University.

Philip Roth and the Modern Jewish Predicament

admin — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:58:17 +0000

Next week, literary critic Adam Kirsch, communications scholar Liel Leibovitz, and professor of Jewish Civilization Jacques Berlinerblau will participate in the event, “Philip Roth and the Modern Jewish Predicament,” a talk about Philip Roth’s prodigious fictional output and its attendant provocations. Aside from assessing his contributions to literature, the panel will also scrutinize Roth’s survey of the modern Jewish predicament. This event is co-sponsored by The Posen Foundation and the Jewish Cultural Studies Program at The New School for Public Engagement.

This event will take place on Monday, March 18, from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM at the Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, Arnhold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, New York, NY, 2nd floor.