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 |
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Page 4
... expression 'coming of age' is used to mean 'to reach full legal adult status', and it is commonly seen in studies of the bildungsroman. This is a term which is widely used in anthropology, for example in Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in ...
... expression 'coming of age' is used to mean 'to reach full legal adult status', and it is commonly seen in studies of the bildungsroman. This is a term which is widely used in anthropology, for example in Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in ...
Page 7
... expressing itself in repeated efforts to revert to a lost childhood and a vanished Eden ... It has been said that ... expression of a political ideology that can only be debilitating. Fiedler, too, argued that the perpetual return to ...
... expressing itself in repeated efforts to revert to a lost childhood and a vanished Eden ... It has been said that ... expression of a political ideology that can only be debilitating. Fiedler, too, argued that the perpetual return to ...
Page 8
Kenneth Millard. that the perpetual return to a faith in innocence is the expression of a retreat from history: In general our writers have no history, no development; their themes belong to a pre-adult world, and the experience of ...
Kenneth Millard. that the perpetual return to a faith in innocence is the expression of a retreat from history: In general our writers have no history, no development; their themes belong to a pre-adult world, and the experience of ...
Page 12
... expression? There is a wealth of analysis of these questions from a variety of perspectives, among them James Milner's Freaks, Geeks and Cool Kids, Thomas Frank's The Conquest of Cool, Charles Acland's Youth, Murder, Spectacle: The ...
... expression? There is a wealth of analysis of these questions from a variety of perspectives, among them James Milner's Freaks, Geeks and Cool Kids, Thomas Frank's The Conquest of Cool, Charles Acland's Youth, Murder, Spectacle: The ...
Page 13
... expression in contemporary America. Adolescence, youth, innocence: they become an idealised fictional category which literary writers can use to give a particular urgency to representations of subjectivity and socialisation that ...
... expression in contemporary America. Adolescence, youth, innocence: they become an idealised fictional category which literary writers can use to give a particular urgency to representations of subjectivity and socialisation that ...
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