From Girl to Woman: American Women's Coming-of-Age NarrativesState University of New York Press, 1 févr. 2012 - 214 pages From Girl to Woman examines the coming-of-age narratives of a diverse group of American women writers, including Annie Dillard, Zora Neale Hurston, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Mary McCarthy, and explores the crucial role of such narratives in the development of American feminism. Women have long known that identity is complex and contradictory, but in the twentieth century their coming-of-age narratives finally voice this knowledge. Addressing a variety of themes—awakening sexuality, the body's metamorphosis in puberty, consciousness of difference from males, and the socialization into feminine gender roles—these narratives reject the heroine's narrative ending in romance, allowing American women writers to create alternative subjectivities by rejecting the notion that identity is ever fixed. While activists have succeeded in winning legal battles that have changed the legal status of women, these narratives perform the cultural work of exposing the painful contradictions faced by women as they come of age. |
Table des matières
| 1 | |
2 Feminism Autobiography and Theories of Subjectivity | 23 |
3 Coming of Age in America | 47 |
Annie Dillard and Anne Moody | 75 |
Fictional Autobiography and Autobiographical Fiction | 109 |
Creating a Hybrid Identity | 133 |
Notes | 161 |
| 177 | |
| 191 | |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
From Girl to Woman: American Women's Coming-of-Age Narratives Christy Rishoi Aucun aperçu disponible - 2003 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
adolescence adult African American American-born Chinese Anne Moody Annie Dillard argues articulate assertion autobiography Belenky Bildungsroman body boys Brave Orchid child childhood Chinese Chinese American claim coherent coming of age coming-of-age narrative conflict constructed context create critical critique culture defined desire Dillard discourses dominant Dust Tracks Emmet Till experience female femininity feminism feminist fiction gender genre girls grand narrative hegemony historical Huck human Hurston identity ideology immigrant individual Janie Janie’s Kingston knowledge liberal humanist literary Little Women male marriage master narrative Maxine Maxine Hong Kingston McCarthy means memoir Moody’s mother narration norms notion novel ofidentity one’s paradigm parents poststructuralist quest rative readers relationship resistance role romance selfhood sense sexual shift signifying silence Simon slave narrative social society specific story suggests Tea Cake theory tion tive traditional truth valorizes voice Woman Warrior womanhood women writers women’s lives writes