Epidemic Judaism: Plagues and their Evocation in Philip Roth’s Nemesis and Ben Marcus’s The Flame Alphabet

This essay explores Philip Roth’s Nemesis and Ben Marcus’s The Flame Alphabet, two contemporary novels which utilize the structure of plague narratives in order to discuss issues relating to Jewish identity, such as the “plague” of anti-Semitism, the importance of utterance and secret knowledge. The thematic significance of language is also evident in both novels as it essentially functions as an obstacle throughout the journey of the protagonists towards redemption. In addition, both novels subvert the traditional generic traits of plague narratives by creating problematic first-person narrators who cast into doubt the validity of the plagues and unfulfilled allegories which leave the reader with no sense of closure.