The Schlemiel in the Postmodern Context in Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint

Abstract

This essay attempts to find similarities between the literary figure of the schlemiel and the cultural movement known as postmodernism by analyzing Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint. The analysis of Portnoy’s Complaint and its use of and reflections on the transformed schlemiel leads to the notion that Portnoy’s Complaint strongly voices the need for a schlemiel as the postmodern hero. Portnoy shows a subversive desire to break away from conventions and norms, while at the same time it reveals the suffering and eventual failure involved in the attempt to achieve freedom from cultural constraints. The contradictory, fragmented memories of the main character, Alexander Portnoy, who through the analysis is established as a schlemiel, are presented as features of a postmodern schlemiel.