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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... tell me not to fly/ I simply must/ Don't bring around a cloud/To rain on my parade'), and to Simon: 'Bite on a bullet/And spit out a limousine'. K. Millard Edinburgh, Scotland Introduction: Contemporary Coming of Age – Subject to Change ...
... tell me not to fly/ I simply must/ Don't bring around a cloud/To rain on my parade'), and to Simon: 'Bite on a bullet/And spit out a limousine'. K. Millard Edinburgh, Scotland Introduction: Contemporary Coming of Age – Subject to Change ...
Page 13
... tell us less about the 'youth' that cultural studies investigates than they do about how the idea of youthful innocence is used by adults to address those issues deemed by them to be in most urgent need of expression in contemporary ...
... tell us less about the 'youth' that cultural studies investigates than they do about how the idea of youthful innocence is used by adults to address those issues deemed by them to be in most urgent need of expression in contemporary ...
Page 17
... telling: 'You'll probably think I'm making a lot of this up just to make me sound better than I really am or smarter or even luckier but I'm not' (Banks 1996: 1). This strategy of demonstrating a reflexive awareness of the reader's ...
... telling: 'You'll probably think I'm making a lot of this up just to make me sound better than I really am or smarter or even luckier but I'm not' (Banks 1996: 1). This strategy of demonstrating a reflexive awareness of the reader's ...
Page 18
... telling enterprise is augmented by the narrator's relationship with earlier texts; where Huck wants us to believe the account provided by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Holden repudiates Dickens in favour of a high respect for his ...
... telling enterprise is augmented by the narrator's relationship with earlier texts; where Huck wants us to believe the account provided by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Holden repudiates Dickens in favour of a high respect for his ...
Page 20
... tell her something important about people but I didn't want her to have to know it yet, she was too young still' (29). This parental attitude is combined with a shrewd, critical perception of the man, Buster Brown, who has taken control ...
... tell her something important about people but I didn't want her to have to know it yet, she was too young still' (29). This parental attitude is combined with a shrewd, critical perception of the man, Buster Brown, who has taken control ...
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