Portnoy's Complaint (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations Series)
Both an outrageous capstone to America's sexual revolution and an expose of Jewish-American angst, Portnoy's Complaint inspired readers to vitriol and ecstasy upon its publication in 1969. Alexander Portnoy's struggle to balance intellectual well-meaning and a wide-ranging libido against Jewish upbringing in a gentile nation is captured in a series of psychoanalytic sessions with an off-stage Dr. Spielvogel. Lauded for its narrative technique, its insight into psychoanalysis, and the sheer...
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Both an outrageous capstone to America's sexual revolution and an expose of Jewish-American angst, Portnoy's Complaint inspired readers to vitriol and ecstasy upon its publication in 1969. Alexander Portnoy's struggle to balance intellectual well-meaning and a wide-ranging libido against Jewish upbringing in a gentile nation is captured in a series of psychoanalytic sessions with an off-stage Dr. Spielvogel. Lauded for its narrative technique, its insight into psychoanalysis, and the sheer audaciousness of its author, Portnoy's Complaint became an embattled classic, whose stature is still debated today.
Editor's NoteviiIntroduction1On Portnoy's Complaint5Philip Roth's Psychoanalysts11In the American Grain (Portnoy's Complaint)27Portnoy's Prayer: Philip Roth and the American Unconscious43Rebellion Against Jewishness: Portnoy's Complaint61Good Girls and Boys Gone Bad73Portnovian Dilemmas83The Jew's Complaint in Recent American Fiction: Beyond Exodus And Still in the Wilderness101Oedipal Politics in Portnoy's Complaint119The Alex Perplex129The Jewish Mother: Comedy and Controversy in American Popular Culture163Reality Shift: Philip Roth189Chronology207Contributors209Bibliography213Acknowledgments217Index219
