Description
Book SynopsisThe volume takes a close look at the forms and functions of family and kinship in cultural narratives in the United States. It analyzes social and cultural contexts of kinship and family membership, relations of family and nation on a metaphorical level, and the political discourses that regulate sexuality and reproduction. Representations of family and kinship inform all aspects of American life, which is prominently noticeable in politics, legislation, art, and the media. Family discourses are employed to communicate and negotiate constellations of power and they can serve to investigate differences, struggles, alliances, strategic endeavors, and innovative conceptualizations of kinship. The essays collected in this volume provide readings of texts across various genres that highlight the role of cultural production in reconfiguring paradigms of family and kinship in the US.
Table of ContentsContents: Reinhard Isensee:
Introduction – Barbara Antoniazzi:
(Im)perfect Fathers: Representing the Black Family in a Time of Post-Racial Possibilities – Ulrike Schneeberg:
The Monster under the Bed: «Making» Boys in Picturebooks with Monsters – Newton Freire Murce Filho:
Changing Family Models: A Study of Highly Recommended Children’s Picture Books from the United States, Canada, and Brazil – Viola Amato:
«Congratulations on the Birth of Your Intersex Baby!»: Challenging Normative Ideas of Family in Current Intersex Discourses – Rebecca Schäfer:
Mother(hood) Monster? Lady Gaga, Family Discourse, and Alternative Modes of Kinship – Karolina Golimowska: New York Families in Post-9/11 Novels: Writing the City in Masha Hamilton’s
31 Hours – Sonja Schillings:
The Dignity of Dead Tissue: Education, Oppression, and Family in Kazuo Ishiguro’s
Never Let Me Go – Agnieszka Styła:
Prodigal Son or Prodigal Father? Ambiguous Family Roles and Narrative Strategies in
Gilead and
Home by Marilynne Robinson – Benjamin Betka:
Housing Halloween: Cinematic Family Horror and Tissue Terror as an American Tradition – Stefan Hippler:
«Intricate Waves of Love and Hatred»: Representations, Models, and Functions of Family in Michael Cunningham’s
Flesh and Blood (1995) – Silvia Chirila:
Belonging as Performativity: Kinship and Community in Toni Morrison’s Novel
Home – Katharina Christ:
«Behind everything there is always a house»: Family Ties in Mark Haddon’s
The Red House – David Rose:
Families of Violence: Gangs and Belonging in Donald Bakeer’s
CRIPS.
