After the Fall: The Terror of History in Philip Roth's Indignation

Upon the publication of Indignation in the fall of 2008, reviewers immediately charted the ways in which Philip Roth's new novel revisited the terrain covered in his earliest fiction. While critics were correct to see the novel's resemblance to Goodbye, Columbus (1959) and Portnoy's Complaint (1969), I argue that Indignation more importantly marks a significant shift in Roth's approach to writing about history. This essay explores the implications of this move and suggests how the critique of history that Roth posits in Indignation remains vital to understanding his late work.