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 43
Page 4
... Childhood (2003), Mary Karr's The Liars' Club (1994), J. T. Leroy's Sarah (2000) and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2001), and Rick Moody's The Black Veil (2002). These works' representations of subjectivity, or narratives of ...
... Childhood (2003), Mary Karr's The Liars' Club (1994), J. T. Leroy's Sarah (2000) and The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2001), and Rick Moody's The Black Veil (2002). These works' representations of subjectivity, or narratives of ...
Page 5
... childhood and 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 ...
... childhood and 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 ...
Page 7
... childhood and a vanished Eden ... It has been said that America is always coming of age; but it might be more fairly maintained that America has come of age in sections, here and there – whenever its implicit myth of the American Adam ...
... childhood and a vanished Eden ... It has been said that America is always coming of age; but it might be more fairly maintained that America has come of age in sections, here and there – whenever its implicit myth of the American Adam ...
Page 8
... childhood and 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 ...
... childhood and 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 ...
Page 19
... childhood. Bone's grandmother expresses his predicament bluntly, 'You don't have a father' (4). The first significant crisis of Bone's coming of age concerns his expulsion from home. Bone steals a collection of antique coins that he ...
... childhood. Bone's grandmother expresses his predicament bluntly, 'You don't have a father' (4). The first significant crisis of Bone's coming of age concerns his expulsion from home. Bone steals a collection of antique coins that he ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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