Matka mówi synowi: ich jest wielu, nas jest mało… Obyczaje gojów według Philipa Rotha
“The Mother Says to Her Son: They Are Many, We Are Few”: Goy Customs According to Philip Roth

Summary/Abstract: Jewish identity issues in Roth’s work also concern the protagonists’ complex relationswith their non-Jewish neighbours and colleagues, as well as their political andsexual relationships. Weiser sheds light on this Jewish-American writer’s ambivalentrepresentation of non-Jewish Americans. They have their own exclusive customs, butat the same time they and the Jews all form one secular and multiethnic nation. Theword goy – Roth uses it interchangeably with Gentile – contains multiple emotionalconnotations. Mostly used as an invective, it sometimes appears neutral, and at othertimes we may detect in it an attempt to endow it with positive associations.

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