Discoursal Formation of Identity in Philip Roth’s The Human Stain

Abstract

Philip Roth’s The Human Stain (2000) simply tells the story of a New England classics professor, Coleman Silk, who is forced to quit his job for alleged racism. The charge is a lie, but the truth about Silk is more shocking because it turns out that for his entire adult life, Silk has been covering up the fact that he is neither Jewish nor white although he is actually a very light-skinned man. The stain given in the title of this novel stands for both a mark on the skin and the mark of our experienced-based stories and which, consequently construct our identities. This paper, therefore, analyzes how the idea of ‘stain’ is ironically inscribed both socially and individually into our identities.