The Politics of Immolation in Philip Roth’s Academic Novel: The Human Stain

Abstract

This essay examines Philip Roth’s The Human Stain, a contemporary academic novel, with respect to its representation of intellectuals and Roth’s view on the current transformation of American higher education. While developing the conventional theme of the crises in male academics’ family and professional lives, 1990s’ academic novels, including Roth’s, depict the university campus as a battleground for the culture wars, canon wars, and political correctness. The important historical backdrop here is the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998. Like other 1990s’ novels, The Human Stain reads as a satire of neo-Puritan hysteria and moral hypocrisy in this period, portraying the witch hunt of a Jewish-passing (white) male professor Silk and depicting President Clinton as a victim of the national eruption of collective paranoia. Yet, through Silk’s immolation, the novel displays a problematic racial and gender politics whereby the existing sexual and racial hierarchies in academia are sustained, particularly through the feminist stereotype and the negative depiction of minority professors. The novel’s major conflict occurs between the male protagonist, Silk, and a female professor, Roux, who represent traditional humanism and political correctness respectively. The death of the white male academic, “persecuted” by feminists and minority professors, paradoxically gives birth to a myth of the great American individualist hero battling against social restrictions, while disparaging female/minority academics. His immolation ironically contributes to the reinforcement of white male dominance.