22 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present

Sees The Human Stain as “the logical outgrowth of Roth’s lifelong aesthetic com-
mitment to the fluidity of the American (or ethnic) self ” (211). The fluidity of
Coleman’s sense of self is such that it allows him to show how inauthentic race
designations can be in American society. Zuckerman is able to identify with
Coleman when he believes the former dean is a Jew, but Zuckerman only writes
the novel once he discovers that Coleman was born as an African American in
East Orange, New Jersey.

Patrice D. Rankine, “Passing As Tragedy: Philip Roth’s The Human Stain,
the Oedipus Myth, and the Self-Made Man,” Critique, 47 (Fall 2005):
101–112.
Links two of the more powerful themes of Roth’s novel: racial passing and the
influence of classical tragedy. Rankine sees Coleman’s choice to pass as white as
the novel’s most tragic aspect, for this decision highlights the tragic situation of
African Americans. Furthermore, she reads the novel as consistently reinforcing
the human tragedy by alluding to Greek myths and tragedies.

Carlin Romano, “The Troves of Academe,” Nation, 270 (12 June 2000): 53–56.
Discusses the qualities of academic life that attract Roth and novelist Francine
Prose, suggesting that it is the gap between the ideal and the real vulgarities of
life that entice them.

James Wood, “The Cost of Clarity,” New Republic, 222 (17–24 April 2000):
70–78.
A review in which Wood takes Roth to task for his “grinding, unappeasable
intelligence,” which shows itself in his creation of characters who are curiously
shallow.

—David M. Borman

h

Sam Shepard, True West

(Performed 1980; Garden City: Doubleday, 1981)

“You gotta be like a rock-and-roll Jesus with a cowboy mouth” insists a charac-
ter in The Cowboy Mouth (1971), the frequently cited one-act play coauthored
and acted by Sam Shepard and poet (and later, rock star) Patti Smith. People’s
desire for a rock messiah or other mythical hero to believe in is a running theme
throughout Shepard’s astonishingly large body of work, which includes more
than forty one-act and full-length plays (thirty of them produced before he was
thirty), poetry, short fiction, and autobiographical prose. As the image also reveals,
his work bears the imprint of popular culture, populated by such iconic figures,
often associated with the West, as the cowboy, gunslinger, outlaw, and rancher.
In an exploration of the spiritual starvation and anomie of contemporary culture
and its effects on identity, Shepard’s characters are always transforming, changing
clothes, and trying out different roles and parts. In this way, the plays also test