Coming of Age in Contemporary American FictionEdinburgh University Press, 2007 M04 18 - 200 pages This book explores the ways in which a range of recent American novelists have handled the genre of the 'coming-of-age' novel, or the Bildungsroman. Novels of this genre characteristically dramatise the vicissitudes of growing up and the trials and tribulations of young adulthood, often presented through depictions of immediate family relationships and other social structures. This book considers a variety of different American cultures (in terms of race, class and gender) and a range of contemporary coming-of-age novels, so that aesthetic judgements about the fiction might be made in the context of the social history that fiction represents. A series of questions are asked:* Does the coming-of-age moment in these novels coincide with an interpretation of the 'fall' of America?* What kind of national commentary does it therefore facilitate?* Is the Bildungsroman a quintessentially American genre?* What can it usefully tell us about contemporary American culture? Although the focus is on the conte |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 41
Page 1
... United States. It is a work of advocacy on behalf of the individual novels that are included for detailed interpretation, and simultaneously, an extended argument about the significance of coming of age to our understanding of ...
... United States. It is a work of advocacy on behalf of the individual novels that are included for detailed interpretation, and simultaneously, an extended argument about the significance of coming of age to our understanding of ...
Page 5
... United States is that it originated as a nation by means of a decisive break with an Old World that had grown corrupt and moribund. This departure to the New World was widely understood in terms of a fresh start for mankind, both ...
... United States is that it originated as a nation by means of a decisive break with an Old World that had grown corrupt and moribund. This departure to the New World was widely understood in terms of a fresh start for mankind, both ...
Page 6
... United States, then the genre of the coming-of-age novel has a unique position in terms of national identity because of the ways that it appropriates and refurbishes that mythology for its own contemporary purposes. In the genre of ...
... United States, then the genre of the coming-of-age novel has a unique position in terms of national identity because of the ways that it appropriates and refurbishes that mythology for its own contemporary purposes. In the genre of ...
Page 13
... United States because of its historical investment in signs of the future. The use of the bildungsroman thus reveals how, 'prohibited from speaking as moral and political agents, youth becomes an empty category inhabited by the desires ...
... United States because of its historical investment in signs of the future. The use of the bildungsroman thus reveals how, 'prohibited from speaking as moral and political agents, youth becomes an empty category inhabited by the desires ...
Page 17
... United States that their stories dramatise. The importance of the father to this quest is paramount: Drifting down the river toward a goal he can neither define nor scarcely imagine, Huck is in fact looking for another father to replace ...
... United States that their stories dramatise. The importance of the father to this quest is paramount: Drifting down the river toward a goal he can neither define nor scarcely imagine, Huck is in fact looking for another father to replace ...
Contents
1 | |
15 | |
Growing up in the Sixties | 46 |
Chapter 3 Citation and Resuscitation | 72 |
Life Sentences | 98 |
Chapter 5 Lexicon of Love | 130 |
6 Memoirs and Memorials | 154 |
Conclusion | 181 |
Bibliography | 183 |
Index | 189 |
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Common terms and phrases
adolescence adult aesthetic American argued attempt attention authority becomes begins believes Bone Bone’s called challenges chapter characterised characters child childhood circumstances closely coming of age coming-of-age contemporary critical crucial culture death defined depiction desire dramatises Edgar especially example experience expression father feel fiction final Fishboy further genre girls gives growing idea identity important innocence integral interest interpretation issue kind knowledge language linguistic Lisbon Lucille Lucille’s Maisie male means metafiction Mona Mona’s moral mother narrative narrator nature never novel origin parents particular partly past Phillip politics protagonist Prozac Nation Purple question reader reading recognise relationship respect response Ruth scene sense significant simply simultaneously social society speak specific story structure subjectivity suicide symbolic takes tell things understanding United voice women writing young