ILLNESS AND THE MEDICALIZATION OF THE BODY IN PHILIP ROTH'S NOVELS

A central, recurrent theme in Roth's oeuvre, the process of aging and illness has been widely explored by the writer in close relation with the medical realm. I shall focus on three novels that, in varying degrees, reveal the complex meaning of this phenomenon, all having the writer's alter-ego, Nathan Zuckerman, as protagonist: The Anatomy Lesson, where Roth exposes the painful awareness of biological vulnerability as part of becoming older, Exit Ghost a novel of solitude and defeat, and American Pastoral, one of Roth's cardinal works, questioning the truth and mythology of one's biography.