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
... political ideology that subsequent critics have drawn attention to and taken issue with. One might argue that Lewis's methodology suffered from a debilitating ahistoricism in its interpretations of texts as portraying a point of origin ...
... political ideology that subsequent critics have drawn attention to and taken issue with. One might argue that Lewis's methodology suffered from a debilitating ahistoricism in its interpretations of texts as portraying a point of origin ...
Page 7
... political ideology, a deeply conservative one, which fosters a sentimental retreat from contemporary challenges by evoking a lost historical utopia when the world was a better place: 'this ideal has appeared with increasing frequency in ...
... political ideology, a deeply conservative one, which fosters a sentimental retreat from contemporary challenges by evoking a lost historical utopia when the world was a better place: 'this ideal has appeared with increasing frequency in ...
Page 10
... political ideology of each novel lies. How does the individual know and experience such contexts and origins? Are they understood in the contemporary period as merely the function of their modes of representation (as they are in Mason's ...
... political ideology of each novel lies. How does the individual know and experience such contexts and origins? Are they understood in the contemporary period as merely the function of their modes of representation (as they are in Mason's ...
Page 11
... politics of this obtuseness or insensitivity is, for Curnutt, a deeply conservative hopelessness by which young people express the belief that traditional narratives of self-determination have collapsed and that aspiration is futile ...
... politics of this obtuseness or insensitivity is, for Curnutt, a deeply conservative hopelessness by which young people express the belief that traditional narratives of self-determination have collapsed and that aspiration is futile ...
Page 12
... politics of the self in contemporary America. Curnutt turns, not to the kind of depictions of youth included in this book, but to the non-fiction work by William Finnegan, Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country (1999), which ...
... politics of the self in contemporary America. Curnutt turns, not to the kind of depictions of youth included in this book, but to the non-fiction work by William Finnegan, Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country (1999), which ...
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