The reputation of 76-year-old Philip Roth cannot be called otherwise than ambiguous. On the one hand — a major figure in modern American literature, a bright intellectual. On the other hand, he is a literary provocateur, a participant in many scandals and, in the words of the New York Times, «the most phallocentric author writing in English today.»
The reputation of 76-year-old Philip Roth cannot be called otherwise than ambiguous. On the one hand — a major figure in modern American literature, a bright intellectual. On the other hand, he is a literary provocateur, a participant in many scandals and, in the words of the New York Times, «the most phallocentric author writing in English today.» In his prose, largely autobiographical, exaggeratedly masculine, Roth talks about what others prefer to remain silent: the role of desire in a man’s life, the fear of castration and impotence, the influence of the family and social environment on the formation of sexuality. The novel «The Professor of Desire» is the quintessence of everything that Philip Roth is loved, feared and appreciated for. His hero, a university lecturer and researcher of Chekhov’s work, David Kipesh, lives in a state of eternal struggle between two principles: the mind in him opposes the flesh. He is thrown from unbridled group sex to complete abstinence, from a passionate affair with a fatal blonde to friendship with a modest teacher. With the skill of a professional pathologist, Roth dissects the concepts of «desire» and «pleasure», ruthlessly pulling the veil of secrecy from the intimate life of the intellectual elite.
By the way
The Professor of Desire was translated by the well-known literary brawler Viktor Toporov from St. Petersburg. The rare coincidence of the temperaments of the author and the translator gives an unusual effect: in Russian, Roth’s text sounds amazingly organic, as if it was originally written in Russian.
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