Abstract
This is how the American Jewish writer Philip Roth himself outlined the predominant theme of his work in 1998: masculinity. Critics agree with this account, although they are not always thoroughly pleased with the literary results of Roth’s preoccupation: “With the possible exception of John Updike, Roth has plumbed the male psyche more thoroughly than any other American novelist of his generation. It can become tedious—he sometimes writes as if he is stuck in a bad marriage with his own legacy.” Brian D. Johnson notes (1992, 254). Since the publication of his first book, Goodbye, Columbus, in 1959, which consists of a novella and five short stories, Roth has needed 24 books to excessively elaborate on the issue of being a Jewish heterosexual male in post-World War II America. His most recent literary product, The Human Stain, came out in April 2000.
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Thaler, I. (2002). Masculinity and Culture at War: Sexualized culture and culturalized sexuality in Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. In: Steffen, T. (eds) Masculinities — Maskulinitäten. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-02875-4_15
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