The American Dream and the Popular Novel.
About: This article is published in American Literature.The article was published on 1986-03-01. It has received 8 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Dream.
Citations
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Book•
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: This paper examined the representations of suburban life and landscape in fictional works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, John Updike, Ann Beattie, and Gloria Naylor, and in films by Frank Capra, Frank Perry, Mike Nichols, Bryan Forbes, and Reginald Hudlin.
Abstract: In the years following the end of World War Q, a new kind of landscape emerged in the United States, one that would immeasurably alter the way Americans think about place. Critics and commentators greeted the emergence of the environment we know as “suburbia” with a mixed reaction: for some, the suburbs represented the material embodiment of the “American Dream”: for others, architectural and environmental homogeneity marked the new suburbs as an alienating, even dangerous terrain. In the half-century since the onset of mass-suburbanization, the United States — which has, by now, become a primarily suburban nation — has continued to struggle with the image and cultural meanings of suburbia. Our vexed cultural relationship to the suburban landscape, evident even before the onset of postwar masssuburbanization, has characterized a small but compelling body of fictional and cinematic works set in the suburbs. This dissertation examines the representations of suburban life and landscape in fictional works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, John Updike, Ann Beattie, and Gloria Naylor, and in films by Frank Capra, Frank Perry, Mike Nichols, Bryan Forbes, and Reginald Hudlin. I argue that these writers and filmmakers self-consciously explore the dynamics of the suburban environment in their works, revealing the cultural aspirations and anxieties undergirding our relationship to suburbia as a lived environment and an idea(l). Their works present contrasting visions of the suburbs, reflecting America’s troubled and increasingly complex relationship to an environment that, ultimately, mirrors the fantasies and phobias of the culture at
84 citations
Dissertation•
01 Apr 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of the heroic, female bodies available in Tamora Pierce's Tortall books (1983-2011) and Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles (2012-2015) demonstrates how mythopoeic YA fantasy contests the dominant, hegemonic narratives of female adolescence.
Abstract: Through a reading of the heroic, female bodies available in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books (1983–2011) and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles (2012–2015), this thesis demonstrates how mythopoeic YA fantasy contests the dominant, hegemonic narratives of female adolescence. Owing to the system of binary oppositions structuring this space, the adolescent girl is offered— through the heavily stylised and always-edited images of popular and media culture—a very narrow and limited means of becoming self, one insisting on a discourse of self-through-appearance at the expense of the body’s fleshiness. Demonstrating a creationary or world-building mind-set, this vein of speculative fiction offers a sub or counter-cultural space in which alternative frameworks of living and being an adolescent female body are possible.
Through the sometimes-fantastical transformations of the body in Pierce and Meyer’s fantasy, this thesis engages liminality, focusing on the adolescent (between child/adult), the body (between self/other), and young adult literature (YAL) (between children’s/adult literature). Drawing from a variety of fields: YAL and feminist theory, studies of myth and folklore as well as popular culture and cultural anthropology, this thesis speaks to and from the places between oppositions, and does so in order to refuse the individuality and isolation required by hegemonic models, while also offering a re-mapping of the body’s curves and contours, one that takes “lumps,” “bumps,” and “scars” into account. To counter the dominant framework of adolescence, this thesis concludes by offering, through a metaphor of “the Pack,” a model of interdependency and relation. Formed by repetition and connection, this model frustrates the economy of opposition, while also taking into account the body’s raised and irregular surfaces and demonstrating how individuals may be “scored into uniqueness” through relationality.
24 citations
Dissertation•
20 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a Table of Table of Contents of the paper "Acknowledgements and acknowledgements of the authors of this paper" and discuss the following:
Abstract: ....................................................................................................................... v Öz ................................................................................................................................ vi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... viii Table of
18 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2016
14 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The American DREAM and American LITERATURE as discussed by the authors is a collection of short stories about the American dream and its connections with the American language, including the following: 1. THE AMERICAN DREAM.
Abstract: ......................................................................................................................................... vi 1. THE AMERICAN DREAM....................................................................................................1 2. THE DREAM AND AMERICAN LITERATURE ..............................................................24 3. HEMINGWAY’S TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT AND THE DREAM..................................47 4. HURSTON’S THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD AND THE DREAM......................69 5. RAWLINGS’ CROSS CREEK AND THE DREAM ............................................................98 6. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................124 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................136
9 citations
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: This paper examined the representations of suburban life and landscape in fictional works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, John Updike, Ann Beattie, and Gloria Naylor, and in films by Frank Capra, Frank Perry, Mike Nichols, Bryan Forbes, and Reginald Hudlin.
Abstract: In the years following the end of World War Q, a new kind of landscape emerged in the United States, one that would immeasurably alter the way Americans think about place. Critics and commentators greeted the emergence of the environment we know as “suburbia” with a mixed reaction: for some, the suburbs represented the material embodiment of the “American Dream”: for others, architectural and environmental homogeneity marked the new suburbs as an alienating, even dangerous terrain. In the half-century since the onset of mass-suburbanization, the United States — which has, by now, become a primarily suburban nation — has continued to struggle with the image and cultural meanings of suburbia. Our vexed cultural relationship to the suburban landscape, evident even before the onset of postwar masssuburbanization, has characterized a small but compelling body of fictional and cinematic works set in the suburbs. This dissertation examines the representations of suburban life and landscape in fictional works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Cheever, John Updike, Ann Beattie, and Gloria Naylor, and in films by Frank Capra, Frank Perry, Mike Nichols, Bryan Forbes, and Reginald Hudlin. I argue that these writers and filmmakers self-consciously explore the dynamics of the suburban environment in their works, revealing the cultural aspirations and anxieties undergirding our relationship to suburbia as a lived environment and an idea(l). Their works present contrasting visions of the suburbs, reflecting America’s troubled and increasingly complex relationship to an environment that, ultimately, mirrors the fantasies and phobias of the culture at
84 citations
Dissertation•
01 Apr 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of the heroic, female bodies available in Tamora Pierce's Tortall books (1983-2011) and Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles (2012-2015) demonstrates how mythopoeic YA fantasy contests the dominant, hegemonic narratives of female adolescence.
Abstract: Through a reading of the heroic, female bodies available in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books (1983–2011) and Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles (2012–2015), this thesis demonstrates how mythopoeic YA fantasy contests the dominant, hegemonic narratives of female adolescence. Owing to the system of binary oppositions structuring this space, the adolescent girl is offered— through the heavily stylised and always-edited images of popular and media culture—a very narrow and limited means of becoming self, one insisting on a discourse of self-through-appearance at the expense of the body’s fleshiness. Demonstrating a creationary or world-building mind-set, this vein of speculative fiction offers a sub or counter-cultural space in which alternative frameworks of living and being an adolescent female body are possible.
Through the sometimes-fantastical transformations of the body in Pierce and Meyer’s fantasy, this thesis engages liminality, focusing on the adolescent (between child/adult), the body (between self/other), and young adult literature (YAL) (between children’s/adult literature). Drawing from a variety of fields: YAL and feminist theory, studies of myth and folklore as well as popular culture and cultural anthropology, this thesis speaks to and from the places between oppositions, and does so in order to refuse the individuality and isolation required by hegemonic models, while also offering a re-mapping of the body’s curves and contours, one that takes “lumps,” “bumps,” and “scars” into account. To counter the dominant framework of adolescence, this thesis concludes by offering, through a metaphor of “the Pack,” a model of interdependency and relation. Formed by repetition and connection, this model frustrates the economy of opposition, while also taking into account the body’s raised and irregular surfaces and demonstrating how individuals may be “scored into uniqueness” through relationality.
24 citations
Dissertation•
20 Jan 2015
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a Table of Table of Contents of the paper "Acknowledgements and acknowledgements of the authors of this paper" and discuss the following:
Abstract: ....................................................................................................................... v Öz ................................................................................................................................ vi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... viii Table of
18 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2016
14 citations
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: The American DREAM and American LITERATURE as discussed by the authors is a collection of short stories about the American dream and its connections with the American language, including the following: 1. THE AMERICAN DREAM.
Abstract: ......................................................................................................................................... vi 1. THE AMERICAN DREAM....................................................................................................1 2. THE DREAM AND AMERICAN LITERATURE ..............................................................24 3. HEMINGWAY’S TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT AND THE DREAM..................................47 4. HURSTON’S THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD AND THE DREAM......................69 5. RAWLINGS’ CROSS CREEK AND THE DREAM ............................................................98 6. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................124 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................136
9 citations