Many scholars have contemplated the question of those literary influences which shaped the fictional creation of Philip Roth (throughout his career, Roth himself was eager to participate in this act of contemplation). The endeavor to identify such influences is a complex task that may be approached in a variety of ways. As one way--but certainly not the only way--of engaging this problematic, we devised a quantitative tool entitled “Intertexts and Influence: A Comprehensive Table of Intertexts in Philip Roth’s Fiction, 1952-2010.” Using Roth’s 53 novels, novellas, and short stories as a database, our table measures every literary: 1) author, 2) work, 3) character, and, 4) passage/verse invoked in his oeuvre. Our findings are geared toward identifying which figures Roth cited most frequently, and in which of his own works he intensified his rate of intertextual invocation. At the very least, our research tool will help scholars quickly identify when and where Roth cited other writers. At best, it will facilitate the inquiries of those studying Rothian intertextuality--a quality of his fiction which we believe must be recognized as a defining component of his aesthetic. 

In order to make the complexity and richness of data in the spreadsheet easier to analyse computationally, the xlsx spreadsheet was transformed into a table that follows the tidy data principles. Minor typos in coding were edited during transformation.  

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Berlinerblau, J.; Michael, B.; Walters, H.; Pejša, S. (2021). Intertexts and Influence: A Comprehensive Table of Intertexts in Philip Roth's Fiction, 1952-2010. Purdue University Research Repository. doi:10.4231/HEAG-QX63

  BibTex | EndNote

1. Authors
2. Citations
3. Digital Humanities
4. Intertexts
5. Literature
6. Modern Literature
7. Philip Roth Studies
8. Purdue University Press
9. The Novel