California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels
California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels: Exiled from Eden focuses on the concept of Californian identity in the fiction of Joan Didion. This identity is understood as melancholic, in the sense that the critics following the tradition of both Sigmund Freud and Walter...
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| Aineistotyyppi: | Online |
| Kieli: | englanti |
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Taylor & Francis
2025
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| Linkit: | ONIX_20250519T091213_9780429657757_43 |
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| _version_ | 1869527690776674304 |
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| author | Nowak McNeice, Katarzyna |
| author_browse | Nowak McNeice, Katarzyna |
| author_facet | Nowak McNeice, Katarzyna |
| author_sort | Nowak McNeice, Katarzyna |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels: Exiled from Eden focuses on the concept of Californian identity in the fiction of Joan Didion. This identity is understood as melancholic, in the sense that the critics following the tradition of both Sigmund Freud and Walter Benjamin use the word. The book traces the progress of the way Californian identity is portrayed in Joan Didion’s novels, starting with the first two in which California plays the central role, Run River and Play It As It Lays, through A Book of Common Prayer to Democracy and The Last Thing He Wanted, where California functions only as a distant point of reference, receding to the background of Didion’s interests. Curiously enough, Didion presents Californian history as a history of white settlement, disregarding whole chapters of the history of the region in which the Californios and Native Americans, among other groups, played a crucial role: it is this reticence that the monograph sees as the main problem of Didion’s fiction and presents it as the silent center of gravity in Didion’s oeuvre. The monograph proposes to see the melancholy expressed by Didion’s fiction organized into four losses: of Nature, History, Ethics, and Language; around which the main analytical chapters are constructed. What remains unrepresented and silenced comes back to haunt Didion’s fiction, and it results in a melancholic portrayal of California and its identity – which is the central theme this monograph addresses. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-159979 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| publisherStr | Taylor & Francis |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1599792025-05-20T07:01:24Z California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels Nowak McNeice, Katarzyna Donner Party Canyon Live Oak Demarcation Line Wagon Train Homeless Generation Run River Ethical Residue Clean Slate Californian Character Racial Melancholia Melancholic Processes Ekphrastic Indifference Martha’s Death Split Rail Fence Rail Fence Lily’s Father thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBH Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels: Exiled from Eden focuses on the concept of Californian identity in the fiction of Joan Didion. This identity is understood as melancholic, in the sense that the critics following the tradition of both Sigmund Freud and Walter Benjamin use the word. The book traces the progress of the way Californian identity is portrayed in Joan Didion’s novels, starting with the first two in which California plays the central role, Run River and Play It As It Lays, through A Book of Common Prayer to Democracy and The Last Thing He Wanted, where California functions only as a distant point of reference, receding to the background of Didion’s interests. Curiously enough, Didion presents Californian history as a history of white settlement, disregarding whole chapters of the history of the region in which the Californios and Native Americans, among other groups, played a crucial role: it is this reticence that the monograph sees as the main problem of Didion’s fiction and presents it as the silent center of gravity in Didion’s oeuvre. The monograph proposes to see the melancholy expressed by Didion’s fiction organized into four losses: of Nature, History, Ethics, and Language; around which the main analytical chapters are constructed. What remains unrepresented and silenced comes back to haunt Didion’s fiction, and it results in a melancholic portrayal of California and its identity – which is the central theme this monograph addresses. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license. 2025-05-20T07:01:23Z 2025-05-20T07:01:23Z 2025-05-19T07:30:46Z 2018 book ONIX_20250519T091213_9780429657757_43 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/102110 9780429657757 9780429025631 9780429652875 9781138370418 9780367663643 9780429655319 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/159979 eng Literary Criticism and Cultural Theory open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/102110/1/9780429657757.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9780429025631 10.4324/9780429025631 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 b5503ba1-3de8-426e-bc89-12774d0dedc5 9780429657757 9780429025631 9780429652875 9781138370418 9780367663643 9780429655319 Routledge 212 Oxford [...] open access |
| spellingShingle | Donner Party Canyon Live Oak Demarcation Line Wagon Train Homeless Generation Run River Ethical Residue Clean Slate Californian Character Racial Melancholia Melancholic Processes Ekphrastic Indifference Martha’s Death Split Rail Fence Rail Fence Lily’s Father thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBH Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Nowak McNeice, Katarzyna California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels |
| title | California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels |
| title_full | California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels |
| title_fullStr | California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels |
| title_full_unstemmed | California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels |
| title_short | California and the Melancholic American Identity in Joan Didion’s Novels |
| title_sort | california and the melancholic american identity in joan didion s novels |
| topic | Donner Party Canyon Live Oak Demarcation Line Wagon Train Homeless Generation Run River Ethical Residue Clean Slate Californian Character Racial Melancholia Melancholic Processes Ekphrastic Indifference Martha’s Death Split Rail Fence Rail Fence Lily’s Father thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBH Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 |
| topic_facet | Donner Party Canyon Live Oak Demarcation Line Wagon Train Homeless Generation Run River Ethical Residue Clean Slate Californian Character Racial Melancholia Melancholic Processes Ekphrastic Indifference Martha’s Death Split Rail Fence Rail Fence Lily’s Father thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSA Literary theory thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBF Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general::DSBH Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 |
| url | ONIX_20250519T091213_9780429657757_43 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT nowakmcneicekatarzyna californiaandthemelancholicamericanidentityinjoandidionsnovels |