Mike Witcombe

Bio: Mike Witcombe is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Trilogy & Criticism. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 8 publications receiving 16 citations.

Annual Bibliography of Philip Roth Criticism and Resources—2017

Abstract: What follows is a bibliography of Philip Roth-related texts published during 2017, including critical works (books, book chapters, journal essays, and special journal issues). All entries will reflect the format as defined in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook (2016). All sources are arranged in alphabetical order according to the author’s last name. Individual essays included in edited collections are grouped in “Book Chapters” and are crosslisted according to MLA style. Digital book editions, such as those designed for Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook readers, are not included in this listing. Given the recent growth in e-book technology, digital versions of Roth’s texts are becoming standard practice. This being the case, none of these e-book versions are included in this bibliography. Readers and researchers can easily visit online booksellers to find digital editions.

In the Roth Archives: The Evolution of Philip Roth's Kepesh Trilogy

Abstract: As the least narratively coherent of Roth's recurrent narrators, David Kepesh is also one of Roth's most enigmatic characters. Perhaps this is excusable; Roth wrote the Kepesh novels during vastly different eras, and, as such, they reflect vastly different interests. For all the frustration this can induce in readers desiring a clearly-defined trilogy, arguably Kepesh's incongruity and ambiguity helped The Dying Animal (2001), the third and final novel in the Kepesh trilogy, receive a significant amount of scholarly attention in recent years. Velichka Ivanova and Debra Shostak are among the critics who convincingly interpret the novel as a critique of certain kinds of toxic masculinity. In addition, Shostak evaluates how the Kepesh trilogy "explore[s] the consequences for sexuality and self-concept when the gendered perspective of a consciousness shifts position" (Countertexts 7)-highlighting the ludic skittishness of the trilogy as a unit.Scholars have remarked very little on this skittishness and have largely considered the first two novels in the trilogy to be a faint embarassment. For example, in his monograph Philip Roth, David Brauner makes an indicative argument that "The Dying Animal is, along with the other Kepesh novels, among [Roth's] weaker work" (223). Whilst the increase in scholarly work done on The Dying Animal has mitigated this, little work on the previous two novels exists,2 resulting in an absence of scholarship that offers prolonged examinations of the construction of the books as a trilogy. As such, the gap between the first Kepesh novel (The Breast, 1972) and the second (The Professor of Desire, 1977) is particularly important insofar as it reflects a commitment on Roth's part to avoid a linear narrative of either surreal Kafkan fantasy or Bildungsroman character study.The rise in studies of the Kepesh novels (or, at least, the figure of Kepesh as represented in The Dying Animal) has been coterminous with scholarly usage of the Philip Roth Papers in the Library of Congress, an archive whose vast collections of Roth-related material remain underutilized in Roth scholarship to date-although it has been deployed in recent works by Shostak, Patrick Hayes, and Josh Lambert, amongst others. These trends are crucial to this article, as is Shostak's notion of "the gendered perspective of a consciousness shift[ing] position," a conception of the trilogy that accounts for Roth's penchant for abrupt transformation and narrative inconsistency.This article argues that the perceived faults of the Kepesh novels can mask their more subtle usefulness for Roth scholarship; in particular, by exploring the differences in the first two Kepesh novels, a sense of their significance within Roth's work can emerge. Beginning with a close reading of unfinished sequels to The Breast, this article will first track paths not taken and explore what their absence reveals about the text that would become The Professor of Desire. Branching into a discussion of the unusual publication history of The Breast, this article will then explore how Roth came to modify the text, positing that such changes evidence an uncertainty over the novel's representation of psychoanalysis in particular. Finally, this article will discuss how the techniques it has employed can provide a platform for a reexamination not only of the value of these works, but of the role of psychoanalysis in Roth's career more broadly.1. UNFINISHED SEQUELS TO THE BREASTThe Breast did not remain a static text in Roth's bibliography. Evidence from both the Philip Roth Papers and subsequent published versions of the text reveal the novella to be in a consistently uncertain position; whilst it arguably represents a definable cultural moment (the growing disenchantment with psychoanalysis amongst the American intelligentsia), it is also demonstrably a work that Roth agonized over as his career progressed. This instability deepens the sense of fundamental unease that is detectable on a contextual, theoretical, and narrative level within the novel. …

Annual Bibliography of Philip Roth Criticism and Resources—2016

Abstract: What follows is a bibliography of Philip Roth-related texts published during 2016, including critical works (books, book chapters, journal essays, and special journal issues). All entries will reflect the format as defined in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook (2016). All sources are arranged in alphabetical order according to the author’s last name. Individual essays included in edited collections are grouped in “Book Chapters” and are cross-listed according to MLA style. Digital book editions, such as those designed for Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook readers, are not included in this listing. Given the recent growth in e-book technology, digital versions of Roth’s texts are becoming standard practice. This being the case, none of these e-book versions are included in this bibliography. Readers and researchers can easily visit online booksellers to find digital editions.

Annual Bibliography of Philip Roth Criticism and Resources—2015

Abstract: What follows is a bibliography of Philip Roth-related texts published during 2015, including critical works (books, book chapters, journal essays, and special journal issues). All entries will reflect the format as defined in the third edition of the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (2008). All sources are arranged in alphabetical order according to the author's last name. Individual essays included in edited collections are grouped in "Book Chapters" and are cross-listed according to MLA style.Digital book editions, such as those designed for Amazon's Kindle and Barnes and Noble's Nook readers, are not included in this listing. Given the recent growth in e-book technology, digital versions of Roth's texts are becoming standard practice. This being the case, none of these e-book versions are included in this bibliography. Readers and researchers can easily visit online booksellers to find digital editions.BOOKSThe Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2015. Eds.Basu, Ann. States of Trial,-Manhood in Philip Roth's America. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. Print.Kaplan, Brett Ashley. Jewish Anxiety and the Novels of Philip Roth. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. Print.EDITED COLLECTIONS AND SPECIAL ISSUESKoy, Christopher E., Ed. "The Worldliness of Philip Roth." Special issue of Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature and Culture 25:49 (2015). Print.BOOK CHAPTERSAarons, Vicki. "The Making of American Jewish Identities in Postwar American Fiction." The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2015. Eds. Brauner and Stahler 43-53. Print.Batnitzky, Leora. "Beyond Theodicy? Joban Themes in Philip Roth's Nemesis." The Book of Job: Aesthetics, Ethics, Hermeneutics. Eds. Leora Batnitzky and Ilona Pardes. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. 2015. 213-24. Print.Budick, Emily Miller. "Ghostwriting the Holocaust: The Ghost Writer, The Diary, The Kindly Ones, and Me." The Subject of Holocaust Fiction. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2015. 19-36. Print.Furst, Lilian R. "Ritualized Bellyaching: Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint." Just Talk: Narratives of Psychotherapy. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2015. 57-70. Print.Loffler, Philipp. "A Singular Act of Invention': Storytelling, Pluralism, and Philip Roth's American Trilogy." Pluralist Desires: Contemporary Historical Fiction and the End of the Cold War. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2015. 97-126. Print.Mosher, Paul W and Jeffrey Berman. "Angry Acts and Counteracts in Philip Roth's Life and Art." Confidentiality and its Discontents: Dilemmas of Privacy in Psychotherapy. New York: Fordham UP, 2015. 82-104. Print.-. "The Angry Act: The Psychoanalyst's Breach of Confidentiality in Philip Roth's Life and Art." Confidentiality and its Discontents: Dilemmas of Privacy in Psychotherapy. New York: Fordham UP, 2015. 63-81. Print.Osmanovic, Sabina. "Dealing with Evanescence: The Motif of Old Age and the Crisis of Meaning in Philip Roth's The Dying Animal." Mapping the World of Anglo-American Studies at the Turn of the Century. Eds. Aleksandra NikCeviC-Batricevic and Marija Krivokapic. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars, 2015. 175-81. Print.Pozorski, Aimee. "American Jewish Life Writing, Illness and the Ethics of Innovation." The Edinburgh Companion to Modern Jewish Fiction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2015. Eds. Brauner and Stahler 43-53. Print.Scanlan, Margaret. "Strange Times to Be a Jew: Alternative History After 9/11." Narrating 9/11: Fantasies of State, Security, and Terrorism. Eds. John Duvall and Robert Marzec. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins UP, 2015. 168-93. Print.Schreier, Benjamin. "Why Jews Aren't Normal: The Unrepresentable Future of Philip Roth's The Counterlife." The Impossible Jew: Identity and the Reconstruction of Jewish American Literary History. New York: New York UP, 2015. 149-84. …

A Comedy of Eruvs: (Re)Locating Jewish Identity in Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Howard Jacobson's J

Abstract: Contemporary Jewish literature has often tasked itself with formulating an aesthetic response to the ever-changing cultural landscape in which Jewish authors write. The novels produced by such writers are often subject to a peculiar kind of anxiety, especially as surrounds themes of space and place-themes of border-crossing and boundary manipulation abound, reflective of the increasing variety and diversity of writers exploring such topics. Comparative analysis serves as a useful means of characterizing this trend, exposing continuities in authors whose reputations and traditional themes can seem to put them in an oppositional or conflictual relationship.Concurrent to these developments has been a renewed interest in themes of space and place within Jewish studies itself, incorporating emblematic studies of particular manifestations of Jewish space as well as more wide-ranging studies of Zionism and Diaspora. One of the most common of these former topics is the eruv-a form of Jewish space that has fascinated scholars from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds in recent years. The eruv, in brief, is a space created by Orthodox communities for the purpose of enabling greater flexibility in ritual observance on Shabbat, delimited by wires or string that mark a given area as a "home" space according to certain rabbinic commentaries. As a liminal space that incorporates debates on Jewish identity and Jewish-nonJewish relations, the eruv has become a contested, symbolically rich space for identity negotiation; for example, Myer Siemiatycki argues that "conflicts over eruvin ultimately are not about territory, but about the place of religion and a visible religious minority in the public realm" (269). In utilizing debates about eruvin as a means to explore Jewish identity, contemporary scholars and writers are expanding our understanding of the representation of space and place.By interpreting the range of debates on eruvin as emblematic of broader moves towards complicating notions of Jewish space and place, this article will focus on representation of "home" space in two novels by contemporary Jewish writers, Michael Chabon and Howard Jacobson. It will argue that the blurring of home space boundaries in these texts takes place in an analogous manner to the complex, dialogic negotiations of identity that take place in eruvin-exposing unexpected connections between writers that are rarely read in conjunction with one another.This article will accomplish this by tracing themes of space and place in both writers, demonstrating continuities between such themes in the authors' broader bodies of work. Progressing to argue for a change in critical perspective away from a focus on innovations in genre or historical perspective, it will argue that scholarly work thus far has incorporated spatial themes in these texts as peripheral rather than intrinsic. Positing the eruv as a tool for exposing spatial complexity, it will then examine how other scholars have discussed themes relating to the eruv, before offering a close reading of the two novels themselves. This final section aims to create and demonstrate an "eruvic" mode of literary analysis tailored to the specific representations of home space in these two novels, enabling a discussion of spatial themes overlooked in earlier studies.Chabon and JacobsonMichael Chabon is one of the great figures in contemporary Jewish-American writing; a bestselling author whose transition to a focus on explicitly Jewish themes has been as commercially astute as it has been critically acclaimed.1 In developing an alternative history of Jews in the twentieth century in his 2007 novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Chabon imagines the travails of a community of Diaspora Jews as they attempt to scrape together a living in an environment hostile to both life in general and to Jews in particular. Fleeing the Holocaust, Jewish settlers petition the American government to grant them space for a homeland, an idea to which the American government reluctantly relents. …

The New York Review of Books

Abstract: It comes as something ofa surprise to reflect that the New York Review ofBooks is now over twenty years old. Even people of my generation (that is, old enough to remember the revolutionary 196os but not young enough to have taken a very exciting part in them) think of the paper as eternally youthful. In fact, it has gone through years of relatively quiet life, yet, as always in a competitive journalistic market, it is the controversies that attract the interest of the reader and to which the history (especially an admittedly impressionistic survey that tries to include something of the intellectual context in which a journal has operated) must give some attention. Not all the attacks which the New York Review has attracted, both early in its career and more recently, are worth more than a brief summary. What do we now make, for example, of Richard Kostelanetz's forthright accusation that 'The New York Review was from its origins destined to publicize Random House's (and especially [Jason] Epstein's) books and writers'?1 Well, simply that, even if the statistics bear out the charge (and Kostelanetz provides some suggestive evidence to support it, at least with respect to some early issues), there is nothing surprising in a market economy about a publisher trying to push his books through the pages of a journal edited by his friends. True, the New York Review has not had room to review more than around fifteen books in each issue and there could be a bias in the selection of

Annual Bibliography of Philip Roth Criticism and Resources—2017

Abstract: What follows is a bibliography of Philip Roth-related texts published during 2017, including critical works (books, book chapters, journal essays, and special journal issues). All entries will reflect the format as defined in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook (2016). All sources are arranged in alphabetical order according to the author’s last name. Individual essays included in edited collections are grouped in “Book Chapters” and are crosslisted according to MLA style. Digital book editions, such as those designed for Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes and Noble’s Nook readers, are not included in this listing. Given the recent growth in e-book technology, digital versions of Roth’s texts are becoming standard practice. This being the case, none of these e-book versions are included in this bibliography. Readers and researchers can easily visit online booksellers to find digital editions.