Textualizing the Self: Adultery, Blatant Fictions, and Jewishness in Philip Roth's Deception

This article examines how Philip Roth's Deception, by enmeshing fiction with autobiography, enlarges the definition of reality. The artist-hero of the text is guilty of deception in both practicing adultery and in adulterating reality by his blatant fictions. Strangely enough, the protagonist's Jewishness lies at the heart of these deceptions. Deception, thus, qualifies as a portrait of the artist as an adulterous Jew.