Abjection in Fiction: A Critical Study of Roth’s Nemesis

Authors

  • Aqsa Naz Lecturer, National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  • Musqan Fatima Lecturer, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
  • Zakia Naeem M.Phil. Scholar, University of Management & Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
  • Nokhaiz Zahra ecturer, National University of Computer & Emerging Sciences, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13884332

Keywords:

Abjection, Crippled Bodies, Disgust, Polio, Trauma

Abstract

Purpose: This article aims to explore how humans react to the concept of mortality and the disgust they feel toward the decaying bodies of polio-stricken people in Nemesis (2010) by Philip Roth.

Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper delves into the breakdown of Bucky Cantor’s life by the advent of polio in Newark, in Roth’s (1933-2018) Nemesis (2010), with the theoretical underpinning of Julia Kristeva’s (b. 1941) abjection and by using qualitative method of research.

Findings: Abjection is portrayed in Nemesis through Bucky’s deep sense of helplessness and disgust in the time of the unremitting polio epidemic, adding to his deep fear of contamination and loss of control of the environment and even his own body. Throughout the novel, the author has emphasized the longsuffering effects of polio on the human body and mind, causing disgust, and trauma. Implications/Originality/Value: The article fills the gap by accentuating the long-term repercussions of polio and how it can leave victims both physically and emotionally crippled which has not been researched before with the framework of abjection.

References

Arya, R. (2017). Abjection interrogated: Uncovering the relation between abjection and disgust. Journal of Extreme Anthropology, 1(1), 48-61.

Budick, E. (2014). Roth's fiction from Nemesis to Nemesis. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 16(2), 10.

Fresh Air. (2010). Philip Roth: On writing, aging, and “Nemesis.” NPR; Fresh Air.

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Jardine, M. (2021). "Lashed to the mast of that recollection": Philip Roth's Nemesis, polio, and post-traumatic memory. Philip Roth Studies, 17(2), 26-43.

Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of horror: An essay on abjection. New York: Columbia University Press.

Pentony, S. (1996). How Kristeva's theory of abjection works about the fairy tale and post-colonial novel: Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and Keri Hulme's The Bone People.

Roth, P. (2010). Nemesis. United States: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Silver, J. K. (2007). Polio voices: An oral history from the American polio epidemics and worldwide eradication efforts. Bloomsbury Publishing USA.

Stangherlin, N. (2016). Nemesis and the persistence of tragic framing: Bucky Cantor as a Job, Hebrew Prometheus, and reverse Oedipus. Philip Roth Studies, 12(1), 73-87.

Trepanier, L. (2023). The paradoxes of the body in Philip Roth’s last novels. Perspectives on Political Science, 52(3), 130-144.

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Published

2024-09-30

How to Cite

Naz, A., Fatima, M., Naeem, Z., & Zahra, N. (2024). Abjection in Fiction: A Critical Study of Roth’s Nemesis. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 44(3), 515-524. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13884332