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 33
Page 1
... Recognising an individual work's relation to its proper genre is often fundamentally important to the act of interpretation, because it is a means to approach a text that enables us to identify important aspects of its meaning: 'The ...
... Recognising an individual work's relation to its proper genre is often fundamentally important to the act of interpretation, because it is a means to approach a text that enables us to identify important aspects of its meaning: 'The ...
Page 3
... recognise works such as James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers as modern examples of the bildungsroman. For scholars of the original German novels, however, this provenance is less ...
... recognise works such as James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers as modern examples of the bildungsroman. For scholars of the original German novels, however, this provenance is less ...
Page 8
... recognised as a specific ideology that has been naturalised and universalised, or as Smith said of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, 'worked into the very fabric of our conception of our history' (Smith 1950: 250) to the point ...
... recognised as a specific ideology that has been naturalised and universalised, or as Smith said of Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, 'worked into the very fabric of our conception of our history' (Smith 1950: 250) to the point ...
Page 9
... recognised as a self-justifying fiction that is a necessary foundation to the constitution of subjectivity. Thus it might be the case that since structuralism 'the authority of a privileged origin that commands, guarantees, and ...
... recognised as a self-justifying fiction that is a necessary foundation to the constitution of subjectivity. Thus it might be the case that since structuralism 'the authority of a privileged origin that commands, guarantees, and ...
Page 15
... recognise the association between movement and reincarnation in both of these novels. The narratives are structured in terms of a sequence of resurrections whereby the central protagonist develops: in both novels, a shift in location is ...
... recognise the association between movement and reincarnation in both of these novels. The narratives are structured in terms of a sequence of resurrections whereby the central protagonist develops: in both novels, a shift in location is ...
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