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 6
... Further, Leo Marx argued that the mythology of the American nation as a new beginning for mankind is a version of pastoral, and that 'The pastoral ideal has been used to define the meaning of America ever since the age of discovery, and ...
... Further, Leo Marx argued that the mythology of the American nation as a new beginning for mankind is a version of pastoral, and that 'The pastoral ideal has been used to define the meaning of America ever since the age of discovery, and ...
Page 9
... Further, it might be argued that an interest in origins is as much a product of our early twenty-first-century academic culture as a mythology of innocent Adam in a western American Garden of Eden was a product of the early years of the ...
... Further, it might be argued that an interest in origins is as much a product of our early twenty-first-century academic culture as a mythology of innocent Adam in a western American Garden of Eden was a product of the early years of the ...
Page 14
... further book, published in 2000, Pamela Steinle has an excellent chapter on 'The Question of Innocence' in which she argues that The Catcher in The Rye 'is written in the tradition of the American Adam yet conceived in a context of ...
... further book, published in 2000, Pamela Steinle has an excellent chapter on 'The Question of Innocence' in which she argues that The Catcher in The Rye 'is written in the tradition of the American Adam yet conceived in a context of ...
Page 19
... Further, Bone has a dark family secret that he does not have the confidence or maturity to address at the novel's beginning. Twice Bone refers to his unwillingness to share this with the reader: 'I don't want to talk about that right ...
... Further, Bone has a dark family secret that he does not have the confidence or maturity to address at the novel's beginning. Twice Bone refers to his unwillingness to share this with the reader: 'I don't want to talk about that right ...
Page 20
... further dramatised by the guilt that he feels when, following a chase through the mall, he is unable to rescue the girl: 'I felt guilty too because of losing my courage and deciding not to take her place' (40). The novel's emphasis on ...
... further dramatised by the guilt that he feels when, following a chase through the mall, he is unable to rescue the girl: 'I felt guilty too because of losing my courage and deciding not to take her place' (40). The novel's emphasis on ...
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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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