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The ‘Journey of Life’ in American Life and Literature

Herausgeber: Freese, Peter

American Studies – A Monograph Series, Bd. 260

2015

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Abstract

The papers collected in this volume were presented at a Conference on “The Journey of Life” which took place at Paderborn University in October 2013. They focus on a perennially recurring archetype of the human imagination which, for obvious reasons, is especially influential in the U.S. The articles offer exemplary insights into the manifestations and functions of the ‘journey of life’ concept in both American life and literature. Some contributions deal with ‘real’ journeys ranging from the westward travels of pioneer women physicians in the nineteenth century through Jack London’s ‘journeys of life’ to the attempts at tinkering with the human journey of life in the age of biotechnology. Other contributions present a taxonomy of journey types in American fiction, and they analyze literary journeys from the omnipresent journeys in Thomas Pynchon’s novels and the post-apocalyptic journey in Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’ through the journey plot in Robert Kirkman’s serial comic ‘The Walking Dead’ and the various kinds of journeys in Western films to the journeys of initiation in Sherman Alexie’s ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ and José Antonio Villarréal’s ‘Pocho’.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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Contents 5
PETER FREESE - Foreword 7
PETER FREESE - Introduction 9
PETER FREESE - The ‘Journey of Life’ in American Fiction 17
KLAUS BENESCH - Modern(s) Walking: Rousseau, Thoreau, Heidegger 65
RÜDIGER KUNOW - From Womb to Tomb: The Journey of Life in the Age of Biotechnology 81
ALFRED HORNUNG - Jack London’s Journeys of Life 91
CARMEN BIRKLE - Westward Home! Of Pioneers, Petticoats, and Practitioners in America’s Old West 101
BRIGITTE GEORGI-FINDLAY - Journeys in(to) the Western Film 121
HEINZ ICKSTADT - Vectors of Desire: Pynchon’s Space Travels 139
MARKUS WIERSCHEM - At a Crossroads of Life and Death: The Apocalyptic Journey(s) of Cormac McCarthy’s Fiction 159
JEANNE CORTIEL - Travels with Carl: Apocalyptic Zombiescape, Masculinity and Seriality in Robert Kirkman’s "The Walking Dead" 187
KARSTEN FITZ - Initiation and Cultural Identity in Sherman Alexie’s Young Adult Fiction 205
JOSEF RAAB - The Intercultural Journey of Belonging in José Antonio Villarreal’s "Pocho" 219
LAURENZ VOLKMANN - Making Sense of Richard Brautigan’s Short Story of (Anti-)Initiation “A Short History of Oregon”. 239
List of Contributors 259