The quest motif forms the framework of the journeys undertaken by the three youthful protagonists of this study. In pursuit of selfhood, the non-conformist hero of the Post-World War II American South sets out on an uncertain path leading to confrontation and finally transformation. Joseph Campbell's ground-breaking analysis of the quest motif is the starting point for the patterns described in these journeys. The quest takes the hero through a perilous post-modern landscape often in conflict with the legacy of the past. It is a place where the optimistic mainstream of the American Dream is juxtaposed with the trauma of human suffering. Through a close textual analysis, the author elucidates multi-faceted characters and thematic while shedding new light on a reading of Southern fiction. Although significantly different novels, important common threads are revealed linking the quest motifs in these works. This study examines William Styron's Sophie ' s Choice , Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away and Bobbie Ann Mason's In Country .

Autorentext

Sharon Therese Nemeth, a native Californian, earned her Magister Artium degree in Anglistik and Germanistik from the Universität Mannheim, analyzing the short stories of Flannery O'Connor. She has taught courses in translation, writing, and English as Second Language (ESL) at the university and corporate level in Germany for many years and is also active in the publishing sector and as a translator.

Inhalt
Contents: Quest Motif William Styron Flannery O'Connor Bobbie Ann Mason The Southern Quester in Post-World War II America Rites of passage Bildungsroman Joseph Campbell The monomyth The transformational process of the youthful protagonist in 20th century American literature The «rebel-self» Gender perspectives Mythology in post-modern American literature Expressing the «banality of evil» The search for selfhood Understanding the Southern homeland in the post-modern world.