Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Robert Rebein, David Beck, Terry Kirts. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 16-17) and annotated bibliography (leaves 100-108).

This is a reflection paper on the process of creating a multi-media art installation that dismantles traditional, patriarchal notions of female coming-of-age stories in film and presents alternative, feminist narratives to these stories through the voices of the women present within the author's own life.

My study examines contemporary Asian American narratives of subject formation through the theoretical lens of the Bildungsroman. A European genre originating in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteen-century Germany, the conventional Bildungsroman is a literary tool whose main objective is to depict an idealized subject's modern socialization. As Franco Moretti nicely captures in his study of the Bildungsroman, The Way of the World, the genre's significance is, above all, its successful representation of a reconciliation of an individual's revolting desires and society's regulatory demands. While highlighting a harmonious convergence of an individual and society, Moretti points to a white European subject's becoming a normative citizen in the rise of bourgeois capitalism. American writers of Asian descent have both utilized and transformed the conventional Bildungsroman form to describe their particular subject formation in the United States. The Asian American Bildungsroman differs from the white American as well as the European Bildungsroman, both formally and thematically, mainly because the racial group's social, political, and economic conditions have been marked by the U.S. exclusion of Asians. Asian American writers' generic interventions of the Bildungsroman thus exhibit their distinctive formal interventions and textual strategies to respond to legal and social exclusions of Asians in this country. In reading four Asian American narratives of subject formation, either novelistic or (auto)biographical in form, I argue the writers invented new versions of the genre, including the communal, the assimilative, the deconstructive, and the competitive Bildungsromane. This dissertation examines how conditions of textual expressions of the contemporary Asian American Bildungsroman have been not only predominantly marked by race but also further affected by class. The significance of the Asian American Bildungsroman is at once its interrogation of the contradiction within the American ideals and its construction of Asian American subjecthood.

This diploma thesis with the title Theme of growing up in modern comics aims to examine the modern comics with qualitative analysis and thus to deepen the insufficient academic coverage of the given topic. The analyzed pieces of work are Locas by Jaime Hernandez, Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware, Oskar Ed: Můj největší sen by Branko Jelinek, Black Hole by Charles Burns, Epileptic by David B., Blankets by Craig Thompson and The Playboy by Chester Brown. The analysis itself is preceded by the part that deals with the wider context of growing up in the literature and cinematography. The chapters which deals with the specific pieces of work are divided thematically and they are always represented by the pair of authors: the theme of feminineness at Jaime Hernandez and Daniel Clowes, the dreamy landscapes and relationships with father at Chris Ware and Branko Jelinek and the sexuality and religion at Craig Thompson and Chester Brown. A chapter summarizing the response of media in the Czech background is also included. The principal aim of the thesis is to increase the coverage of theoretical material of the specific comic works and to put it into the wider artistic context.

The Boy in the Tunnel is a domestic coming-of-age novel told from three alternating perspectives. It is about two white teenage girls who cover up the accidental death of their black friend in Atlanta during the summer of 1994. The novel explored the insidious nature of racial prejudice and the many ways in which Americans deny responsibility for wrongdoing—both contemporary and historical. It also explores the intense nature of female teenage friendships and the harsh realities of the adult world in comparison with the relative simplicity of childhood.

OOLITHS is a poetry collection that challenges commonly held American values such as the sanctity of the family, the American Dream, the nobility of parenthood, and faith in God. Divided into eight sections, the collection follows the arc of childhood, adolescence, maturity and decline. Images of birds, crickets, the beach, the moon, and rainstorms anchor the poems to Miami’s natural habitat and to each other, while images involving music, sleep, raisins, coffee beans and eggs unite them in the realm of the domestic. OOLITHS includes traditional forms such as sonnets, as well as nonce forms, prose poems, free verse and newer forms. “Art History for Breast Cancer Survivors”—a twenty-stanza pecha kucha inspired by Terrence Hayes that deals with the narrator’s battle with breast cancer—marks the middle of the collection. Having scratched the varnish off our illusions, OOLITHS concludes by acknowledging the inevitability of loss with a bittersweet smile.

A SECOND UNIVERSE is a memoir-in-essays that traces the author’s coming of age and her pursuit of self-discovery, belonging, and healing in all its forms. The book opens in the past, diving into the lives of the author’s parents before she was born and shedding light on the many obstacles they overcame to bring her earth-side. Set against the backdrop of the Southern Utah deserts and the clarity the author finds in the natural world, these essays wind through the author’s different childhood homes, down the lonely and desolate road of a sister’s addiction, and into the darkness that comes as she braces for her father’s impending blindness. Similar to Brenda Miller’s LISTENING AGAINST THE STONE, this collection explores the inherent desire for human connection and spiritual insight that we search for in the places we live, the people we love, and the nature that surrounds us.

This essay argues that Little Women does not promote breaking stereotypical gender norms and nineteenth century gender roles, contrary to what several critics say. This paper will be using feminist criticism and analyzing two of the novel’s main characters, Meg and Jo, and examining their behavior towards stereotypical gender norms and rules. This essay concludes that while Jo challenges certain gender norms and roles, such as having “manly” emotions (anger) and taking on male-dominated jobs (author), within the narration she is punished for these and forced to become a conventional woman of the nineteenth century in order to live a happy life. On the other hand, Meg follows the rules of societal gender expectations and is rewarded for her behavior. By examining these two characters, this essay establishes that Little Women, because it is a didactic novel, delivers the moral that women can only be truly happy if they fit into stereotypical gender norms and roles.

This essay explores the character development of Ronan Lynch in Maggie Stiefvater's The Dream Thieves (2013) with the intention of showing the process of self-acceptance through the narratological concepts character and characterization as well as Young Adult literature research focused on coming-of-age in terms of self-discovery and sexual identity. It was found that Ronan does reach self-acceptance. In terms of characterization, this can be seen through his relationships with other characters and his role in the narrative. When it comes to coming-of-age, his self-acceptance is seen through his self-discovery in regards to sexuality, and especially through his identity construction in relation to his supernatural ability.

The screenplay (creative production component) follows Sunny, a young South African Indian woman, who relocates to Cape Town to study fine art. She sets her eyes on a significant award, but makes the critical mistake of falling for her greatest rival. Despite facing crippling cultural expectations and biases, Sunny discovers that being different - and loving who she wants to love - is not a crime, but an imperfect truth. The screenplay explores the protagonist's first year at university, complicated by questions of identity, race, gender, sexuality and their intersection with tradition and culture in contemporary South Africa. Taking the form of a coming-of-age Indie drama (with an artistic twist), the main character embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learning, as she confronts these challenges. The reflective creative explication serves as an accompaniment to the screenplay. It is used to expound upon the creative process of writing the screenplay: highlighting key scenes, beats and decisions whilst interrogating the theoretical frameworks surrounding representations of ‘othered' groups - specifically queer womxn of colour - and their perception in society, aided by the lens of personal lived experience. This is followed by a review of the Indie and coming-of-age genres, in which the screenplay operates. The piece acts as a critical reflection intended to contextualise and justify the creative decisions made in the screenplay, so as to provide a means of accessing the larger themes and concerns at hand.