-
Pursuing the Ghost of Personal History
- Philip Roth Studies
- Purdue University Press
- Volume 5, Number 2, Fall 2009
- pp. 205-218
- 10.1353/prs.2009.a386489
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Exit Ghost questions the categorical boundaries associated with biography and fiction. Both narratives are informed and produced by the subjective perspective of an individual self. This is why biography can never render completely a writer's life. Moreover, biography is irrelevant in literary judgment because only aesthetic criteria apply to a work of art. Ultimately, Exit Ghost gives the guidelines for the reception of Roth's own fiction.