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 46
Page 1
... adolescence. Some knowledge of genre theory is invaluable as a guide to how adolescence in the novel might be approached. Recognising an individual work's relation to its proper genre is often fundamentally important to the act of ...
... adolescence. Some knowledge of genre theory is invaluable as a guide to how adolescence in the novel might be approached. Recognising an individual work's relation to its proper genre is often fundamentally important to the act of ...
Page 2
... adolescence, are revealed in the very language of critical discussion of adolescence. For example, the word 'bildungsroman' was coined in Germany in 1819, and it means a novel recounting the early emotional development and moral ...
... adolescence, are revealed in the very language of critical discussion of adolescence. For example, the word 'bildungsroman' was coined in Germany in 1819, and it means a novel recounting the early emotional development and moral ...
Page 4
... adolescence: Huck is fourteen, Holden is sixteen. Barbara White, for example, defines her study of what she terms the female 'novel of adolescence' in terms of the parameters of age; this is a genre which although it shares some ...
... adolescence: Huck is fourteen, Holden is sixteen. Barbara White, for example, defines her study of what she terms the female 'novel of adolescence' in terms of the parameters of age; this is a genre which although it shares some ...
Page 5
... adolescence? Even for twelve- and nineteen-year-olds there is a considerable variation in depictions of that moment when coming of age is deemed to have occurred, and full legal adult status varies between cultures, especially in ...
... adolescence? Even for twelve- and nineteen-year-olds there is a considerable variation in depictions of that moment when coming of age is deemed to have occurred, and full legal adult status varies between cultures, especially in ...
Page 8
... adolescence haunt our greatest works as an unintended symbolic confession of the inadequacy we sense but cannot remedy' (Fiedler 1955: 209–10). Fiedler's unhappiness is predicated on a strongly Freudian model of human personal ...
... adolescence haunt our greatest works as an unintended symbolic confession of the inadequacy we sense but cannot remedy' (Fiedler 1955: 209–10). Fiedler's unhappiness is predicated on a strongly Freudian model of human personal ...
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