“It is not my objective to be metaphoric or allegorical” history, counter-history, and antisemitism in Philip Roth’s «The Plot Against America»

After Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004) came out he published “My Uchronia” (2004). Among other things, Roth explains that before reading Arthur M. Schlesinger’s A Life in the 20th Century (2000) he “had no such novel in mind” (2017: 341). This autobiography made him think of what would...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Sánchez Canales, Gustavo Adolfo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Repositorio:Biblos-e Archivo. Repositorio Institucional de la UAM
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uam.es:10486/721183
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10486/721183
https://dx.doi.org/10.15366/actionova2024.m7.006
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Philip Roth
antisemitism
history/counter-history
Lindbergh
Roosevelt
Filología
Descripción
Sumario:After Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (2004) came out he published “My Uchronia” (2004). Among other things, Roth explains that before reading Arthur M. Schlesinger’s A Life in the 20th Century (2000) he “had no such novel in mind” (2017: 341). This autobiography made him think of what would have happened if Charles A. Lindbergh—the famous aviator and Nazism supporter—had won the 1940 elections instead of F.D. Roosevelt. In this essay, which abounds in the theme of antisemitism introduced in a previous paper (Sánchez Canales, 2021), I will focus on the factual figure of Lindbergh—and to a lesser extent that of his wife Anne Morrow—Roth’s counter-versions of them, and key factual and counterfactual events depicted in the narrative. Through this comparative analysis I will attempt to show that Roth’s fictional America is by no means something far-fetched