필립 로스의 『인간의 오점』에 나타난 패싱과 도의적 정당성
Passing and Political Correctness in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain
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This paper investigates Philip Roth’s The Human Stain in terms of the protagonist Coleman Silk’s passing and the issue of ‘Political Correctness’ that has caused him to resign from his position as a college professor and his ultimate death. Interestingly enough, Coleman passes for a Jewish, not as a white in contrast with the typical African American passing subjects, after recreating a new self from his black racial identity. During the years of his transformation and performative role as a Jewish, Coleman consciously or subconsciously tries to inhabit the liminal space of neither black nor white in which he thinks he can pursue freedom from all constraints that bind him in the fetters of the bonding of ‘we.’ His life is a series of role performance which constantly demands him to be in disguise and secret. Depicting Coleman’s effort to deal with the forces of history and the societal impact on the colored people from the 40s to 90s, Roth not only demonstrates how a passing subject’s identity is constructed and maintained but explores also the difficulties of grasping the racial problem in American society. With this novel, Roth forcefully joins the American racial discourse in dialogue with other African American writers and demonstrates the fluidity and changeability of a racial identity and its social constructedness. ‘Political correctness’ is another important issue examined in this novel. Closely intertwined with race and the moral consciousness of the passing subject, it drives another axis of the narrative, and Roth criticizes the social phenomena of the 90s and people who are implicitly subject to the arbitrary interpretation of political correctness in a feeling of frenzy and prejudice prevalent at the time. By depicting the protagonist who endeavors to pass for a Jewish but becomes a victim of political correctness, Roth comments on both American racism and absurd political correctness.
Abstract
This paper investigates Philip Roth’s The Human Stain in terms of the protagonist Coleman Silk’s passing and the issue of ‘Political Correctness’ that has caused him to resign from his position as a college professor and his ultimate death. Interestingly enough, Coleman passes for a Jewish, not as a white in contrast with the typical African American passing subjects, after recreating a new self from his black racial identity. During the years of his transformation and performative role as a Jewish, Coleman consciously or subconsciously tries to inhabit the liminal space of neither black nor white in which he thinks he can pursue freedom from all constraints that bind him in the fetters of the bonding of ‘we.’ His life is a series of role performance which constantly demands him to be in disguise and secret. Depicting Coleman’s effort to deal with the forces of history and the societal impact on the colored people from the 40s to 90s, Roth not only demonstrates how a passing subject’s identity is constructed and maintained but explores also the difficulties of grasping the racial problem in American society. With this novel, Roth forcefully joins the American racial discourse in dialogue with other African American writers and demonstrates the fluidity and changeability of a racial identity and its social constructedness. ‘Political correctness’ is another important issue examined in this novel. Closely intertwined with race and the moral consciousness of the passing subject, it drives another axis of the narrative, and Roth criticizes the social phenomena of the 90s and people who are implicitly subject to the arbitrary interpretation of political correctness in a feeling of frenzy and prejudice prevalent at the time. By depicting the protagonist who endeavors to pass for a Jewish but becomes a victim of political correctness, Roth comments on both American racism and absurd political correctness.
참고문헌 (17)
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