Abstract: Within the context of the Nemeses tetralogy, Indignation (2008) provides a peculiar example of Philip Roth's ability to triangulate history, death, and ethnicity within his fiction. Through the novel's young antihero, Marcus Messner, Roth reconsiders questions of Jewish identity. Messner becomes the main character of a contemporary ghost story when, on the verge of dying, he recounts the circumstances that led to his tragic demise. This essay aims at reading the novel as if it were a ghost story where ethnicity is defined by death; in other words, ethnicity is the defining element through which a person becomes a ghost. Drawing from the theoretical fields of Spectral and Ethnic Studies, I elaborate on Kathleen Brogan's theory of "cultural haunting" to argue that at the end of his life and career, Roth developed a "spectral ethnicity" that allowed him to reflect, yet again, upon themes that haunted him until the last of his days.
Rachele Puddu (Thu,) studied this question.