by Melissa Knox, University of Duisburg-Essen
Drawing on the Renaissance concept of serio ludere (serious play), this essay investigates the relationship between play and Philip Roth’s loss and restoration of his identity in each of his novels. The relationship between Roth’s play and his art has attracted little attention apart from investigations into his presumed trickery (Rudnytsky, 2007). But the pattern in Roth’s life of periodic collapse, briefly alluded to by him in The Facts as “the crack-up” followed by the “controlled investigation” (7) always starts with play. The relationship between the crack-up and the “controlled investigation” is that between the player and the game. Roth’s deliberate, lively process from psychic and physical collapse to autocratic self-command provides artistic mastery—a genuine technical mastery, like that of a ballerina executing thirty-two fouetté turns.
Continue reading “I’m Done”: Philip Roth, Serio Ludere, Narcissism, and Nemesis