| Description |
1 online resource (192 pages) |
| Contents |
Russell Banks, Rule of the bone -- Brady Udall, The miracle life of Edgar Mint -- Geoffrey Wolff, The age of consent -- Gish Jen, Mona in the promised land -- Jeffrey Eugenides, The virgin suicides -- Rick Moody, Purple America -- Scott Bradfield, The history of luminous motion -- Mark Richard, Fishboy -- Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping -- Josephine Humphreys, Rich in love -- Dorothy Allison, Bastard out of Carolina -- Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac nation |
| Summary |
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 contemporary period, this is placed in the context of reference to earlier novels and criticism of the genre, as well as historical changes in the status of the family, and the adolescent within it. Key Features. Provides detailed interpretations of 12 key contemporary novels from authors including Purple America by Rick Moody, The Age of Consent by Geoffrey Wolff, The Virgin Suicides by Jefffrey Eugenides and Prozac Nation by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Explains the importance of the coming-of-age genre to the broader American literature canon. Makes a significant intervention in contemporary debate about what is most valuable in recent American fiction |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
|
English |
|
Restricted: Printing from this resource is governed by The Legal Deposit Libraries (Non-Print Works) Regulations (UK) and UK copyright law currently in force. WlAbNL |
|
Print version record |
|
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Subject |
Bildungsromans, American -- History and criticism
|
|
American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism
|
|
LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
|
|
LITERARY CRITICISM -- General.
|
|
American fiction
|
|
Bildungsromans, American
|
|
Bildungsroman
|
|
USA
|
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780748621736 |
|
0748621733 |
|
9780748629541 |
|
0748629548 |
|
9780748629817 |
|
0748629815 |
|
9780748651740 |
|
0748651748 |
|
0748621741 |
|
9780748621743 |
|
9786610833986 |
|
6610833982 |
|
128083398X |
|
9781280833984 |
|
