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
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Page 2
... narrative that had been identified in Wieland's Agathon, 1767, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, 1795, the latter was translated by Thomas Carlyle in 1824 as Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and 'has established itself in literary history ...
... narrative that had been identified in Wieland's Agathon, 1767, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, 1795, the latter was translated by Thomas Carlyle in 1824 as Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and 'has established itself in literary history ...
Page 5
... narrative. One way to address these issues of genre is to maintain a close critical focus on the dramatisation of that 'innocence' which childhood and adolescence are often believed to exemplify. How is such innocence conceptualised and ...
... narrative. One way to address these issues of genre is to maintain a close critical focus on the dramatisation of that 'innocence' which childhood and adolescence are often believed to exemplify. How is such innocence conceptualised and ...
Page 6
... narrative constituting America's national mythology' (Yanarella and Sigelman 1988: 4), but it is only one strain of American mythology and it carries with it a particular political ideology that subsequent critics have drawn attention ...
... narrative constituting America's national mythology' (Yanarella and Sigelman 1988: 4), but it is only one strain of American mythology and it carries with it a particular political ideology that subsequent critics have drawn attention ...
Page 9
... narratives of history that are open to dispute. This is an issue of the nature of historiography rather than of the ... narrative moves forward in time towards a point of maturity from which it can address that unspoken origin that ...
... narratives of history that are open to dispute. This is an issue of the nature of historiography rather than of the ... narrative moves forward in time towards a point of maturity from which it can address that unspoken origin that ...
Page 13
... narrative form those challenges that adult novelists perceive to be the most pressing concerns of their day. This is especially true in the United States because of its historical investment in signs of the future. The use of the ...
... narrative form those challenges that adult novelists perceive to be the most pressing concerns of their day. This is especially true in the United States because of its historical investment in signs of the future. The use of the ...
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