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From girl to woman : American women's coming-of-age narratives / by Christy Rishoi.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Rishoi, Christy, 1958-
- Series:
- SUNY series in feminist criticism and theory
- SUNY series in postmodern culture
- SUNY series in Feminist Criticism and Theory
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Women's studies--United States--Biographical methods.
- Women's studies.
- Women--Identity.
- Women.
- Social role.
- Maturation (Psychology).
- Self-realization.
- Autobiography--Women authors.
- Autobiography.
- Feminist criticism.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (215 p.)
- Edition:
- 1st ed.
- Place of Publication:
- Albany : State University of New York Press, c2003.
- Language Note:
- English
- Summary:
- 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.
- Contents:
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Identity and the Coming-of-Age Narrative
- Feminism, Autobiography, and Theories of Subjectivity
- Coming of Age in America
- Specifying American Girlhood
- “Lying Contests”
- “Room for Paradoxes”
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Notes:
- Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-190) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9781417524138
- 0-7914-8688-5
- 1-4175-2413-8
- OCLC:
- 61367712
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