“[A]nything but fragile and yielding”: Women in Roth’s Recent Tetralogy

Counter to charges that Roth is an unimaginative misogynist when it comes to representing women, “Women in Roth’s Recent Tetralogy” argues that, with his four latest works, Roth’s treatment of women reflects a self-referential maturity and a new perspective from which to read his œuvre overall. Understanding Roth’s references to women in these later works not only in relation to his previous novels but also in relation to other canonical texts, this article casts Roth’s work in a new light, especially in terms of his women, who are “anything but fragile and yielding.”