An analysis of the Philip Roth’s sustained pursuit of his American identity mixed with his engagement with the trope of the American Adam is the center of this paper. From the outset of his career, Roth has sought to be understood as an American, not Jewish, writer. But as his career unfolded, the challenges of sustaining his American identity grew, whether in Portnoy’s Complaint, Sabbath’s Theatre or the American Trilogy. The confrontation between American and Judaic identities increasingly became his subject as his Jewish roots threatened his American identity stemming from a Protestant, if not Puritan, literary heritage. Coleman Silk and Swede Levov from The Human Stain and American Pastoral represent the challenge best summarized by Abe Ravelstein in Bellow’s eponymous novel when he remarks that “as a Jew you are also an American, but somehow you are not.” The paradox of Roth’s entanglement with the trope of the American Adam is that he both pursues and denies this identity, accepting its heroism but acknowledging its impossibility. One moment he publically declares “if I’m not an American, I am nothing,” but on the other, to be Roth he knows he must violate the Adamic ideal, prepared to renounce neither his American nor Jewish identities.

中文翻译：

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美国罗斯

本文的重点是对菲利普·罗斯对菲利普·罗斯的美国身份的持续追求以及他对美国亚当的悲剧的参与的分析。从职业生涯一开始，罗斯就开始被理解为美国人，而不是犹太作家。但是随着他事业的发展，无论是在Portnoy的投诉，安息日的剧院还是在美国三部曲中，维持他的美国身份的挑战都在增加。美国和犹太人身份之间的对抗日益成为他的主题，因为他的犹太血统威胁到他的美国身份源于新教徒（如果不是清教徒）文学遗产。《人类污点》和《美国牧民》中的科尔曼·希尔克和瑞典人·莱沃夫代表了贝娄同名小说中安倍·拉威尔斯坦最恰当地概括的挑战，他说：“作为犹太人，你也是美国人，但是不知何故。” 罗斯与美国亚当的阴谋缠在一起的悖论在于，他既追求并否认这种身份，接受了它的英雄主义，但承认其不可能。有一刻他公开宣称“如果我不是美国人，我什么都不是”，但另一方面，他知道要成为罗斯，他必须违反亚当的理想，并准备放弃他的美国人或犹太人的身份。