The Great Refusal in Philip Roth’s American Pastoral

Ever since the publication of Philip Roth’s American Pastoral, critics have debated whether the text’s unfavorable and reductive depiction of the radicals in the long 1960s can be attributed to Roth’s own conservativism. The debate has been in part further aroused by his supposedly more sympathetic account of the fall of the protagonist “the Swede,” who embraces all things considered as standing for America itself. However, by drawing on various historical contexts and materials—the history of the long 60s, Roth’s interviews, textual cues, and above all Herbert Marcuse’s concept of the Great Refusal—I argue that the novel is more accepting of radicalism than it allows itself and the critics allow it to be. The novel partakes in the making of the Great Refusal, that is, through which it searches for a more resilient form of radicalism. In that sense, the novel looks back at the long 60s and depicts the age with nuance, rejecting the caricature that it is crazed and enraged.