The dying animal
The dying animal , English original title The Dying Animal , is a short novel published in 2001 by the US author Philip Roth . It tells the story of an older literature professor named David Kepesh, who is known for a literary criticism radio show and who, despite his enormous scientific and cultural maturity, eventually falls victim to his underdeveloped emotionality . The dying animal is the third novel about the fictional professor, the first is entitled The Breast (1972), the second The Professor of Desire (1977).
content
action
Kepesh uses his position as a literature professor and well-known critic on television to seduce female students. The description of his sexuality and his will to be sexual occupies a large part of the novel.
As a student, he also met Consuela Castillo, the daughter of Cuban exiles, well protected and of immaculate beauty. Fascinated by her beauty and driven by his own fears and needs of aging, Kepesh develops a hitherto unknown obsession for the young woman, without being able to develop a relationship with loyalty and emotionality. An unimportant occasion for the narrator leads to the breakup of the couple, who have always been aware of the social non-acceptance and impossibility of a relationship between an older professor and a young student. Kepesh remains marked by longing and depression.
At the time of the story, the affair was eight years ago. The narrator tells of his life after Consuela's loss and of another turning point - Consuela calls Kepesh again eight years after the relationship was broken off. The now 32-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer, in panic of her death and the sure knowledge of the partial removal of the breast, for her, as it were, destruction of her body, she turns to the only man who can see her beauty and the uniqueness of her Body felt.
Kepesh wants to meet her, but is also scared of it. Despite the sudden feeling of superiority - Consuela has death in mind, he as an old man can assume a longer life - the narrator fears inevitably sinking into a vortex of passion through a renewed relationship with Consuela. Nevertheless, the two of them meet.
subjects
The novel is not only a story about sexual passion, but it also questions central principles of human relationship, social culture and finally American ideology , evangelical puritanism . Kepesh also criticizes and reviews his approach to upbringing and manhood . Last but not least, the novel illuminates the fears and difficulties of the children of exiles.
illustration
Most editions show the title picture Le grand nu (1919) by the painter Amedeo Modigliani . The image is described in the novel as an image of Consuela and is depicted on a postcard she sends to Kepesh.
filming
The novel formed the basis for Nicholas Meyer's screenplay for the film Elegy or the Art of Love .
Secondary literature
- Peter Mathews: The Pornography of Destruction: Performing Annihilation in The Dying Animal . In: Philip Roth Studies 3: 1, 2007, pp. 44-55.