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 45
Page 5
... parents and eager to create its own character founded on a different set of values and priorities. So there is a confluence of the genre of the comingof-age novel and a particularly, or even uniquely, American narrative of national ...
... parents and eager to create its own character founded on a different set of values and priorities. So there is a confluence of the genre of the comingof-age novel and a particularly, or even uniquely, American narrative of national ...
Page 18
... parents, and their inability to cope with his occasionally feckless, teenage behaviour, is symptomatic of their own entrapment in a working-class culture that offers little prospect of a different future. Bone's parents pass on to him ...
... parents, and their inability to cope with his occasionally feckless, teenage behaviour, is symptomatic of their own entrapment in a working-class culture that offers little prospect of a different future. Bone's parents pass on to him ...
Page 19
... parents and, after an angry confrontation, Bone moves out of the house to become a small-time dealer and thereby gain some respect among his peers. This incident is important because it removes him irrevocably from his family life and ...
... parents and, after an angry confrontation, Bone moves out of the house to become a small-time dealer and thereby gain some respect among his peers. This incident is important because it removes him irrevocably from his family life and ...
Page 20
... parental attitude is combined with a shrewd, critical perception of the man, Buster Brown, who has taken control of her. Bone is alert to the social signals of corrupt and duplicitous adults, and he recognises that they are a danger to ...
... parental attitude is combined with a shrewd, critical perception of the man, Buster Brown, who has taken control of her. Bone is alert to the social signals of corrupt and duplicitous adults, and he recognises that they are a danger to ...
Page 21
... parents hadn't taught me, and now due to my situation I was having to work most of it out on my own' (68). This sense of having to make crucial decisions without parental guidance is an important aspect of the novel's politics. Although ...
... parents hadn't taught me, and now due to my situation I was having to work most of it out on my own' (68). This sense of having to make crucial decisions without parental guidance is an important aspect of the novel's politics. Although ...
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