The Heroic Ideal in Philip Roth's "Indignation" (2008) and "Nemesis" (2010)

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,0, University of Wuppertal, language: English, abstract: Particularly "Nemesis" and "Indignation" have a strong relation to one another due to several factors such as the usage of time, place, setting, Fear, narration, and character design. In the thesis at hand, these two novels will be further investigated to demonstrate how Roth succeeds in narrative experimentation as much as in creating a powerful heroic ideal informed by an existential vision.

Thus, this work is going to illustrate that Roth is trying to create a certain heroic ideal that is modeled on ancient heroic paragons and mediates it through an existential vision. Moreover, Roth presents a novel conception of heroism that is likely to appeal to youth across generations and especially to America in the 1950s. With the aid of his heroic ideal, Roth raises general questions about masculinity in modern societies. With the aid of this literary device, Roth is able to strengthen the heroic ideal within these novels. Likewise, supportive is his usage of historical context. Roth generally situates his works along two thematic themes: historical times-spaces and the interconnections of culture.