Cosmopolitanism and Tragic Silence 147interstices take on more ideological overtones as Roth, albeit subtly,
explores the material nature of America’s social fabric. This particu-
lar reading of American Pastoral is one that is, it should be acknowl-
edged, somewhat unconventional in that it breaks from the avenues
through which most critics have approached the work. These have
generally gravitated toward looking at the psychological effects of
the Vietnam War on the American family unit, the restrictive ten-
dencies of Cold War American suburbia, and the destruction of the
“American Dream.” Ross Posnock, Alex Hobbs, and Philip Abbott
fall loosely into these interpretive categories.^45
Taking a different tack, I argue that, as in The Human Stain ,
Roth deploys rather subtle but deliberate strategies of silence to indi-
cate through conspicuous omission some of the ideological tensions
and contradictions that plague the protagonist’s mindset, leading
ultimately to tragic ruin. These lacunae also serve (but not rigidly
so) to reflect the ideological shortcomings that beset American cul-
ture and society. Once again, Emmanuel Levinas’s theory is used to
explain how these silences work to promote a self-reflexive empathic
engagement between the reader and the protagonist. I also rely on
Macherey’s work on silence to explicate how Roth uses this narrative
technique to draw our attention to the neglect shown toward the
materiality of social relations in the prevailing myths that presume
to define the American traditions of cosmopolitan inclusiveness
and equal opportunities. In so doing, I expand upon the arguments
Posnock makes when describing America’s cultural traditions as
“cosmopolitan” (the “game of appropriation” that expresses itself in
American cultural output), and postulate other, more sociopolitical
grounds for the assertion.
Although the roots of American sociopolitical discourse are
clearly far from monolithic, there is nevertheless a liberal cosmopol-
itan thread that spans the gamut of the nation’s history. Of course,
this assertion is not in any way novel or particularly controversial. In
a treatise on the genealogy of American liberalism, Aaron Michael
Keck argues that the most salient ideas to have been adopted in the
US sociopolitical imaginary have been cosmopolitan in essence.
From the “pluralism inherent in the constitution” (the proclama-
tions of equal liberty and rights for all “men”), to the “reluctant