Part Blood, Part Ketchup: Coming of Age in American Literature and FilmPart Blood, Part Ketchup analyzes novels by 20th century authors Edith Wharton, J.D. Salinger, Philip Roth, John Irving, and Jamaica Kincaid, uncovering trends that obliterate cultural divides. With unrestrained American voices, the collective pitch of their complaints soars, revealing an unmistakable formula of heightened self-exposure and fury. As in the case of protagonists on the page and the screen, it becomes difficult to distinguish authentic suffering from performance_or in the words of one reviewer_the ratio of blood to ketchup. Breathtaking in scope, Part Blood, Part Ketchup situates over one hundred years of literature and film within national, historical, and global contexts, tracing 19th century European allegations of a troubling narrowness in the American character to contemporary insights about the global superpower. Ultimately, Karen Tolchin finds that subtle evolution of the American coming-of-age narrative has performed significant cultural work in the construction of our national mythology |
Contents
Overview of the American Character | 1 |
Alexander Portnoy Meets Young Werther and Lucky Jim | 19 |
Optimism Innocence and Angst in The Catcher in the Rye | 31 |
Violence Lunacy and Family Values in The World According to Garp | 45 |
Luxuries of Discontent Female Jeremiads by Wharton and Kincaid | 61 |
Edith Whartons House of Angst | 63 |
Never Enough Blessings Jamaica Kincaid and the Postcolonial Complaint | 89 |
Afterword Portnoy 210 | 111 |
Bibliography | 115 |
Index | 121 |
| 127 | |
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Common terms and phrases
According to Garp Alexander Portnoy American Bildungsroman protagonists American character American Jeremiad American Novel anger angst Antolini Bart's beauty Bernard-Henri Lévy Bildung Bildungsroman genre Book Review Digest Catcher comical critic culture desire despite Dickens displays Edith Wharton feels fiction film Garp's global Helen hero Holden Caulfield House of Mirth human humor hyperbole Ibid imagined Innocence Irving's Isabel J. D. Salinger Jamaica Kincaid jeremiad Jewish John Irving Jonathan Ames ketchup Lévy Lewis Lily Bart Lily's literary literature live Lucy Lucy's luxury Maloff Mariah Miss Bart moral mother narrator never nineteenth century Percy Gryce person Philip Roth Pinsker Portnoy's Complaint reader Reilly remark reprinted courtesy review of Portnoy's Richard Chase Rosedale Roth's Sacvan Bercovitch Salinger's Sally Hayes scene sexual social society sort T. S. Garp takes things tion Tocqueville Tolchin tone Trollope twentieth century American voice Werther woman women World According writes York Young Werther