NEW COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON PHILIP ROTH
Deadline for abstract submission: 10/15/03

I am looking for contributors to a new book on Philip Roth to be
published by the Greenwood Publishing Group. This will be a collection
of brand new essays on Roth and it will cover the entire scope of his
career. The audience for this project would be an academic as well as a
more general readership. In other words, the book should fit nicely on
university library shelves just as comfortably as it would in a high
school library. As I'm projecting it now, it will be divided into
approximately 16 chapters, each one dealing with either one specific
text (usually one of Roth's more significant novels) or two books that
would work well together (e.g., Roth's pre-Portnoy novels, _Letting Go_
and _When She Was Good_).

Each chapter (approximately 5000-7000 words long, depending on the
particular subject matter) should be a highly readable introduction to a
particular book, or books, by Roth and would be accessible to anyone
familiar with as well as wanting to learn more about Roth's fiction. In
order to provide this clarity, every chapter will be constructed in a
somewhat similar manner, although one that doesn't stifle its author's
critical creativity. Each chapter will begin with an introduction to a
particular book, provide a brief summary of its story line, move on to
an analysis of its various literary elements, and then conclude by
contextualizing the significance of the book within the overall body of
Roth's oeuvre. There should be thematic threads throughout that link
all of the chapters. Some examples of these could include the rise of
suburbanization in post-war America, the problematic prominence of the
family, American (Jewish) ethnicity, comedy and satire, the costs of
literary celebrity, postmodern articulations and concerns, the
relationship between the author and his text, the promises (and
failures) of the American dream, and the ways in which sex defines who
we are. Contributors would be encouraged to focus on these as well as
other issues, but at the same time they will be expected to make their
chapters their own (i.e., give it their own personal stamp).

Most of the chapters have already been assigned, but I still need
contributors for the following:

Chapter 4 - Post-Portnoy Experiments: _Our Gang_, _The Breast_, and _The
Great American Novel_

Chapter 5 - _My Life as a Man_

Chapter 7 - The (First) Zuckerman Books: _Zuckerman Bound_, with an
emphasis on _Zuckerman Unbound_, _The Anatomy Lesson_, and "The Prague
Orgy"

Chapter 15 - The Kepesh Novels: _The Breast_, _The Professor of Desire_
and _The Dying Animal_

If you would like to contribute to this project, please contact me with
a brief description of how you would conceive a particular chapter (or
chapters, in the event that your first choice for a contribution has
already been assigned) along with pertinent contact information. I hope
to have all of the essays assigned by the middle of October.

Derek

Philip Roth Society
http://rothsociety.org
Derek P. Royal, President
Dept. of Literature and Languages
Texas A&M University-Commerce
royal_at_rothsociety.org
Phone: 903-886-5275 Fax: 903-886-5980

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Received on Thu Oct 02 2003 - 02:15:22 EDT