Philip Roth and the Literary Alter Ego

To quote from Wikipedia, “an alter ego is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. A person who has an alter ego is said to lead a double life. The term appeared in common usage in the early 19th century when dissociative identity disorder [multiple personality disorder] was first described by psychologists...In literary analysis...it describes...a fictional character whose behavior, speech or thoughts intentionally represent those of the author...The existence of ‘another self’ was first recognized in the 1730s. Anton Mesmer used hypnosis to separate the alter ego...a behavior pattern that was distinct from the personality of the individual when he was in the waking state compared to when he was under hypnosis…”

In short, an alter ego is one personality of a person with split (multiple) personality. Often hidden, it may be brought out by hypnosis (or other means). Writers may have literary alter egos, which they bring out when they write.

In his Paris Review interview by Hermione Lee in 1984, novelist Philip Roth discusses his literary alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman. Roth says that everyone has a split personality, but the art of “impersonation” (having and using the alter ego) is the novelist’s fundamental talent. It is an “act” and “pretend,” but the novelist remains both himself and “someone else” when the curtain of the show comes down:

“...The thing about Zuckerman that interests me is that everybody’s split, but few so openly as this. Everybody is full of cracks and fissures, but usually we see people trying very hard to hide the places where they’re split…”

INTERVIEWER: What happens to Philip Roth when he turns into Nathan Zuckerman?

“Nathan Zuckerman is an act. It’s all the art of impersonation, isn’t it? That’s the fundamental novelistic gift...Making fake biography, false history, concocting a half-imaginary existence out of the actual drama of my life is my life. There has to be some pleasure in this job, and that’s it. To go around in disguise. To act a character. To pass oneself off as what one is not. To pretend...Think of the ventriloquist...His art consists of being present and absent; he’s most himself by simultaneously being someone else, neither of whom he 'is' once the curtain is down…Millions of people do this all the time, of course, and not with the justification of making literature...People beautifully pretending to be ‘themselves’…”