Comic Sense Reading Robert Coover, Stanley Elkin, Philip Roth
The idea for this study came to me in the course of my reading of innova tive US-American! fiction of the last three decades. I observed that much of it is cast in the comic mode - or, more precisely, that there seems to be in contemporary fiction an aff
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Series Editors D. J. Allerton W. Elmer B. Engler H. Isernhagen Englisches Seminar Universitat Basel Nadelberg 6 CH -4051 Basel
Thomas Pughe
Comic Sense
Reading Robert Coover, Stanley Elkin, Philip Roth
Springer Basel AG
Author's Address Dr. Thomas Pughe Universite d'Orleans Faculte des Lettres et Sciences Humaines Rue de Tours 45072 Orleans France
Published with Support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., USA Deutsche Bibliothek Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pughe, Thomas: Comic sense : reading Robert Coover, Stanley Elkin, Philipp Rothrrhomas Pughe. (International cooper series in English language and literature) ISBN 978-3-7643-5023-9 ISBN 978-3-0348-7746-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-0348-7746-6
This work is subject to copyright. AH rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specificaHy the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of iHustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any kind of use permission of the copyright owner must be obtained.
© 1994 Springer Basel AG. Origina11y published by Birkhiiuser Verlag Basel, Switzerland in 1994
Camera-ready copy prepared by the author Printed on acid-free paper produced of chlorine-free pulp Cover design: Markus Etterich ISBN 978-3-7643-5023-9 987654321
v
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
IX
Preface
XI
Part One: 1.
2. 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3. 3.1 3.2 4. Part Two: 1.
2. 2.1 2.2 3.
Comic Sense and the Problem of Attitude Coover, Elkin and Roth as "Redfaces" The Evidence: A Controversial Reading of Three Meta-Comic Texts Adorno's "Comic Judgement of the Comic" Philip Roth's "On the Air" Robert Coover's Whatever Happened to Gloomy Gus of the Chicago Bears? Stanley Elkin's The Living End Interpreting the Evidence: 'Homogenism' vs. 'Heterogenism' Comic Judgements of the Comic 'Heterogenism': The Comic as a Way of Seeing A Theory: Corney that "Happens" in the Act of Reading Robert Coover and The Comedy of Good & Bad Sport. "I thought it was all for fun": "Panel Game" as Paradigm Comic Characters in Coover's Fictional World The Clown: "Charlie in the House of Rue" Magicians: "The Hat Act" and "The Phantom of the Movie Palace" "Always leave 'em laughin' as you say goodbye!": The Public Burning
1 4 5 8 13
19 25 25 30 38 43 44 47 47 52 59
VI
3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4
History as Entertainment Nixon Agonistes The "Sam Slick Show" Self-Reflection and Self-Incrimination
59 62 68
4.
The Cackle of Fiction
77
Part Three:
1. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4
Philip Roth's Zuckerman Novels as a Comic «Kunstler-Roman" Heroisms Ghost Writing and "The Madness of Art" Nathan Parricida and Appel the Porn-King Nathan Zuckerman, Zionist Agent The Ridicule of Seriousness
83 84 85 90 95 97
2.
"Dans Ie vrai": The Writer and His Public
100
3.
Love: The Role of Women in Roth's "Kiinstler-Roman"
104
4. 4.1 4.2 4.3
"The Counterlife" as Climax Death of an Author Two Readers: Henry and Ma
