The Jewish Risk: Philip Roth in Sixties West Germany

When Philip Roth died in May 2018, he was the best-known American writer in Germany. By that point, his difficult early years on the German book market were long forgotten. If one investigates the archives of Rowohlt Verlag, where Roth’s first books were published in Germany, there is explicit talk...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Naharaim
Main Author: Sina, Kai 1981- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: De Gruyter 2023
In: Naharaim
Year: 2023, Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 243-257
Further subjects:B book market
B Jewish literature
B Philip Roth
B Antisemitism
B West Germany
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Summary:When Philip Roth died in May 2018, he was the best-known American writer in Germany. By that point, his difficult early years on the German book market were long forgotten. If one investigates the archives of Rowohlt Verlag, where Roth’s first books were published in Germany, there is explicit talk of a "risk." The publisher feared that Roth's portrayal of Jewish characters in all their ambivalence and complexity could affirm anti-Semitic sentiment in Germany. Therefore, Rowohlt's efforts to position Roth in the literary field of the Federal Republic were accompanied by deliberate risk management. This paper reconstructs the publishing house's strategy and its contexts.
ISSN:1862-9156
Contains:Enthalten in: Naharaim
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/naha-2023-0018