Ralph Ellison: The Invisible Man in Philip Roth's The Human Stain

Abstract

hen Philip Roth published The Human Stain (2000), the conclusion to a trilogy that began with American Pastoral (1997) and Married a Communist (1998), he told an interviewer, I think of it as a thematic trilogy, dealing with the historical moments in postwar American life that have had the greatest impact on my generation (Zukerman's Alter Brain). World War II, the McCarthy witch hunts, the social unrest of the 1960s, Vietnam, Watergate, and even the impeachment of Bill Clinton all receive detailed and impressive treatment by Roth. Of the three volumes, The Human Stain has generated perhaps the most critical excitement (including an A-list Hollywood movie version) because of its sensational plot revelation that its typically Rothian hero, a Jewish academic, is, in fact, an African American passing as a Jew. While no one to my knowledge has yet suggested that The Human Stain portrays Roth's own desire to be black, Roth's work is deeper and more surprising than just another foray into the realm of identity politics.1 Demonstrating