Philip Roth on Screen

Philip Roth on Screen: Adaptation and Afterlife is the first scholarly volume to offer a sustained analysis of cinematic and televisual adaptations of the fiction of Philip Roth, one of the most influential and controversial figures in postwar American literature. Proceeding from the premise that adaptation is not merely an act of translation, but a cultural and interpretive event shaped by its own creative, historical, and ideological contexts, contributors to this volume interrogate how Roth’s complex literary voice, themes, and characters have been translated, transformed, or resisted in visual media. While Roth’s novels have been the subject of extensive critical analysis, their screen adaptations – ranging from obscure early films like Battle of Blood Island (1960) to high-profile productions like The Plot Against America (2020) – have received comparatively little attention and mixed success. Contributors explore these adaptations through comparative analyses and close readings to demonstrate the unique challenges and opportunities for adaptation presented by the metafictional structures, narrative unreliability, and provocative explorations of sexuality, Jewish-American identity, and American political life found in Roth’s fiction.