The vindictive nature of Jewish wry humor in Philip Roth's early works : goodbye, Columbus and portnoy’s complaint
Other Title(s)
النزعة الانتقامية في الفكاهة اليهودية الساخرة في روايات فيلب روث الأولى وداعا كولومبس و شكوى بورتنوى
Source
Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University
Issue
Vol. 42, Issue -- (30 Jun. 2014), pp.423-462, 40 p.
Publisher
Ain Shams University Faculty of Arts
Publication Date
2014-06-30
Country of Publication
Egypt
No. of Pages
40
Main Subjects
Abstract EN
Sigmund Freud once said that he never knew any other instances of people mocking themselves as do Jewish people.
Humor related to Jewish communities throughout history and among diverse peoples is characterized by a certain feature, which facilitated the breaking of social barriers or erecting them in order to catapult others.
In most cases, mocking the self and its flaws in dealing with non-Jews is one of the most distinguishing features of Jewish humor.
Studying this kind of humor more closely, one realizes a sly vindictive nature lurking behind a fa9ade of self-laceration mockery while the other is always the intended target.
The mechanism of Jewish wry humor depends on counter attacking the aggressor by mocking the self as a measure of defense and retaliation.
Philip Roth’s early works, commonly semi-autobiographical recreations of his experiences as an adolescent, deal with the dilemma of central Jewish male protagonists who are repeatedly caught in a tragic-comic limbo between the demands of their social and religious affiliations and their unquenched desires for self-fulfillment and gratification.
The bitter sweet blend of mirth and agony is the main feature of Jewish wry humor as the agony is of a masochist nature and the mirth is of a scandalizing purpose.
The aim of these commonly wry self-mocking narrative discourses is the vindication of the self against religious, familial, or social oppressive powers.
This papers aims at studying the mechanism of Jewish wry humor in the wryly humorous narrative discourses of Philip Roth’s early works
American Psychological Association (APA)
al-Kahaki, Khalid. 2014. The vindictive nature of Jewish wry humor in Philip Roth's early works : goodbye, Columbus and portnoy’s complaint. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University،Vol. 42, no. --, pp.423-462.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-692722
Modern Language Association (MLA)
al-Kahaki, Khalid. The vindictive nature of Jewish wry humor in Philip Roth's early works : goodbye, Columbus and portnoy’s complaint. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University Vol. 42 (Apr. / Jun. 2014), pp.423-462.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-692722
American Medical Association (AMA)
al-Kahaki, Khalid. The vindictive nature of Jewish wry humor in Philip Roth's early works : goodbye, Columbus and portnoy’s complaint. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Ain Shams University. 2014. Vol. 42, no. --, pp.423-462.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-692722
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Record ID
BIM-692722