Derek Parker Royal

Texts, Lives, and Bellybuttons: Philip Roth's Operation Shylock and the Renegotiation of Subjectivity

This essay argues that the texts and countertexts that make up much of Philip Roths writing complement the interplay between autobiography and fiction. Roths post-Zuckerman books, specifically Operation Shylock: A Confession, create not only a text of the self and a countertext of the other, but also countertexts to the text of the self. While such a postmodern awareness of the self is both honest and potentially liberating, there is nonetheless a danger in losing a sense of self and community. In Operation Shylock, Roth attempts to come to terms with this problem by anchoring questions of identity largely within the Jewish ethnic community. What is more, Roths text demonstrates that the relationship between autobiography and fiction is most illustrative when it provides us with a means to observe how authors construct their reality and thereby their lives.

Grave Commentary: A Roundtable Discussion on Everyman

Five major scholars in the field discuss the significance of Philip Roths brand new novella, Everyman. The roundtable participants focus on, among other issues, the overriding presence of death and dying in Roths recent work, the nostalgic tone of the new novella, the nature of Roths narrative voice in the text, and the place of Everyman within the context of Roths overall canon.

There Goes the Neighborhood: Cycling Ethnoracial Tensions in Will Eisner's Dropsie Avenue

Unlike many of Will Eisner’s graphic novels, texts concerned primarily with Jewish families and communities, Dropsie Avenue (1995) takes on the broader theme of American ethnoracial relations and the dynamics of urban assimilation. It offers a critical and even neo-naturalistic reading of the traditional “melting pot” myth, resistant to any romantic notions of multicultural nationhood. In drawing together the various actions that occur throughout the text, Eisner employs several highly revealing, and visually sophisticated, graphic signifiers that dramatically underscore the violence and alienation that can result within multi-ethnic communities: a metaphoric emphasis on windows, references to fire, and the presence of “For Sale” or “For Rent” signs. These cyclically recurring images function as a form of illustrated shorthand for the seemingly never-ending attempts of diverse populations to work out their differences. Furthermore, they also serve as formal visual links between the assorted sequences that, taken together, emphasize the social fragmentation of the modern urban landscape.