In this Book
- From Girl to Woman: American Women's Coming-of-Age Narratives
- Book
- 2003
- Published by: State University of New York Press
- Series: SUNY series in Feminist Criticism and Theory
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.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
- pp. iii-iv
- Acknowledgments
- p. xi
- 3 Coming of Age in America
- pp. 47-73
- Works Cited
- pp. 177-190
Additional Information
ISBN
9780791486887
DOI
MARC Record
OCLC
55896436
Pages
202
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No