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 13
... partly because Salinger's novel is not as important to American literature as the idea of innocence that it is taken to exemplify, and which is long antecedent to it. For example, in another interpretation published in the 1990s, The ...
... partly because Salinger's novel is not as important to American literature as the idea of innocence that it is taken to exemplify, and which is long antecedent to it. For example, in another interpretation published in the 1990s, The ...
Page 19
... partly of learning to come to terms with this secret (his sexual abuse by his stepfather) and learning to speak about it in the account of the formative experiences of his adolescence that he provides here. In this respect, his story is ...
... partly of learning to come to terms with this secret (his sexual abuse by his stepfather) and learning to speak about it in the account of the formative experiences of his adolescence that he provides here. In this respect, his story is ...
Page 24
... partly because he has absconded from the poor conditions of seasonal labour. I-Man is thus an illegal alien, and Bone's relationship with him, like Huck's with Jim, is one in which they are both fugitive from the law. Both characters ...
... partly because he has absconded from the poor conditions of seasonal labour. I-Man is thus an illegal alien, and Bone's relationship with him, like Huck's with Jim, is one in which they are both fugitive from the law. Both characters ...
Page 25
... to her teenaged voice consists partly of refraining from structuring her immediate thoughts in accordance with the formal qualities of books she has studied. Bone's control over the shape In the Name of the Father 25.
... to her teenaged voice consists partly of refraining from structuring her immediate thoughts in accordance with the formal qualities of books she has studied. Bone's control over the shape In the Name of the Father 25.
Page 27
... partly a growing awareness of the fallibility of fathers, and this extends to his increasing scepticism about I-Man. When he arrives in Jamaica, Bone quickly realises that I-Man is a drugdealer; that his posse is, like the Adirondack ...
... partly a growing awareness of the fallibility of fathers, and this extends to his increasing scepticism about I-Man. When he arrives in Jamaica, Bone quickly realises that I-Man is a drugdealer; that his posse is, like the Adirondack ...
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