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 36
Page 1
... critical study of coming of age as it is represented in the contemporary fiction of the United States. It is a work of advocacy on behalf of the individual novels that are included for detailed interpretation, and simultaneously, an ...
... critical study of coming of age as it is represented in the contemporary fiction of the United States. It is a work of advocacy on behalf of the individual novels that are included for detailed interpretation, and simultaneously, an ...
Page 2
... 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 education of its protagonist ('bildung': formation ...
... 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 education of its protagonist ('bildung': formation ...
Page 3
... critical interest in the first place precisely because of the way that they function at the limit of generic convention. Similar questions about genre inhabit the study of those works that are closely affiliated to the bildungsroman and ...
... critical interest in the first place precisely because of the way that they function at the limit of generic convention. Similar questions about genre inhabit the study of those works that are closely affiliated to the bildungsroman and ...
Page 5
... critical focus on the dramatisation of that 'innocence' which childhood and adolescence are often believed to exemplify. How is such innocence conceptualised and configured by these novels, what forms of social experience does it ...
... critical focus on the dramatisation of that 'innocence' which childhood and adolescence are often believed to exemplify. How is such innocence conceptualised and configured by these novels, what forms of social experience does it ...
Page 13
... critical attention that it once did' (Salzman 1991: 8), and Joel Salzberg observed that we are now sufficiently distant from the novel's publication (in 1951) that recent criticism of it often has the tone of 'ceremonial rituals of ...
... critical attention that it once did' (Salzman 1991: 8), and Joel Salzberg observed that we are now sufficiently distant from the novel's publication (in 1951) that recent criticism of it often has the tone of 'ceremonial rituals of ...
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