Revisions of the American Adam: Innocence, Identity and Masculinity in Twentieth Century America
- ISBN-10
- 1441169520
- ISBN-13
- 9781441169525
- Category
- Literary Criticism
- Pages
- 172
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-11-03
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Author
- Jonathan Mitchell
Description
The figure of the American Adam is a prevalent myth in US cultural history. Defined by R.W.B. Lewis in 1955 as "the hero of new adventure . . .an individual standing alone, self-reliant and self-propelling, ready to confront whatever awaited him with the aid of his own unique and inherent resources", the figure is discernable in the American renaissance writers and in the imagery of the frontiersman, cowboy, gangster as well as in the heroes of US action movies. Focusing on the American Adam as a paradigm of masculine identity formation, this monograph examines how this fantasy of an imaginary ideal identity has held an ideological sway over US identity in the main. Taking in a range of cultural texts, Jonathan Mitchell's study explores the complexities and contradictions of Adam's 'real' condition of existence to show how the paradigm influences both masculinity and subsequently hegemonic US identity as represented throughout twentieth-century US culture.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2011-11-03
- 172 pages
- Ebook
- A&C Black
-
- 2011
- 163 pages
- Paperback
- A&C Black
Similar books
-
Critical essays on the mith of the american Adam
By María Eugenia & DíazCritical essays on the mith of the american Adam
-
The American Adam
By R. W. B. LewisThe process is both complicated and enhanced by the ironically entitled " digression " on Lord Nelson . The story of the common sailor is suddenly stretched into great drama by a glimpse of the " heroic personality " of " the greatest ...
-
The Films of Delmer Daves: Visions of Progress in Mid-Twentieth-Century America
By Douglas HorlockWhile Cochise in Broken Arrow demonstrates that he is a realist in appreciating that whites are getting stronger while ... Wagon continues from the point where Broken Arrow concluded, with “Comanche” Todd taking revenge for the rape and.
-
Growing Up with America: Youth, Myth, and National Identity, 1945 to Present
By Emily A. MurphyBeginning from this assertion, Emily A. Murphy traces the ways that youth began to embody national hopes and fears at a time when the United States was transitioning to a new position of world power.
-
Food Culture Studies in India: Consumption, Representation and Mediation
By Simi Malhotra, Kanika Sharma, Sakshi DograThis book discusses food in the context of the cultural matrix of India. Addressing topical issues in food and food culture, it explores questions concerning the consumption, representation and mediation of food.
-
American Fiction in Transition: Observer-Hero Narrative, the 1990s, and Postmodernism
By Adam KellyAmerican Fiction in Transition is a study of the observer-hero narrative, a highly significant but critically neglected genre of the American novel.
-
A Synopsis of the Books of Adam and Eve: Second Revised Edition
By Gary A. Anderson, Michael E. Stone, Professor of Armenian Studies and Comparative Religion Michael E StoneA Synopsis of the Books of Adam and Eve: Second Revised Edition
-
Reading Smile: History, Myth and American Identity in Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ Long-Lost Album
By Dale CarterLewis, R. W. B. The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century. Chicago, IL: U of Chicago P, 1955. ... Revisions of the American Adam: Innocence, Identity and Masculinity in Twentieth Century America.
-
The American Road Trip and American Political Thought
By Susan McWilliams BarndtA more scholarly example is Mary Patricia Carden, “'Adventures in Auto-Eroticism': Economies of Traveling Masculinity in On the Road and The First Third,” in What's Your Road, Man?: Critical Essays on Jack Kerouac's On the Road, ed.
-
Masculinity and Place in American Literature since 1950
By Vidya RaviBoker, Pamela A. Grief Taboo in American Literature: Loss and Prolonged Adolescence in Twain, Melville, and Hemingway. New York: NYU Press, 1997. Boswell, Marshall. “The Black Jesus: Racism and Redemption in John Updike's 'Rabbit Redux.