earticle

영어

This paper aims to investigate the Jewish-self and ethics of coexistence by analyzing Philip Roth’s Indignation and Nemesis. In Indignation, Marcus Messner’s father shows a hysterical obsessive fear and anxiety about the safety of his only son, who yearns to break free from the constraints of his Jewish home and to achieve self-identity in American society. Marcus, in a morphine-induced coma on the verge of death after having been bayoneted in the Korean War, realizes that his father’s fear and anxiety are not groundless, but come from the restrictions and exclusions of the 1950s American society. In Nemesis, Bucky Cantor, a young and healthy Jewish gym teacher, is infected with polio, which leads to a tragic consequence. Drawing largely on Giorgio Agamben’s concept of Homo sacer, this paper analyzes how biopolitics operates in the situation of contagious disease or the quarantine of the city in Nemesis. This paper asserts that Marcus’ claims of the right to individual choice and human rights stem from Liberalism (represented by John Stuart Mill, Friedrich A. Hayek, and John Rawls), and Bucky’s sense of responsibility and guilty conscience are grounded in an over-preoccupation with Communitarianism (represented by Michael J. Sandel, Alasdair C. MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor). Furthermore, this study points out that Philip Roth asserts that overcoming the conflicts among persons or groups requires “ethics of coexistence,” which comprises mutual consideration and understanding through liberal communication.