{"product_id":"violent-adventure-marilyn-c-wesley-9780813922133","title":"Violent Adventure: Contemporary Fiction by American Men","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs the mother of young sons, Marilyn Wesley became increasingly concerned about the conflicting messages they received in a world where \"Han Solo replaced John Wayne as a national hero and the lost war in Vietnam was mediated by GI Joe dolls and Rambo movies.\" What, she wondered, do the stories we tell our boys teach them about being men, and what does a culture of male violence teach our boys about being violent men?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eQuestioning both the popular condemnation of violent representation and the notion that violence can be constructive by empowering the \"identity\" of an integrated adult self, Wesley identifies a revealing pattern of \"violent adventure\" in recent fiction by American men. Although the wide range of texts examined in \u003ci\u003eViolent Adventure\u003c\/i\u003e have in common the use of violence associated with traditional genres of adventure (boy's life narratives, Westerns, detective and war stories, as well as what she terms the contemporary epic), their portrayals add a twist.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTim O'Brien, Thom Jones, Tobias Wolff, Pinckney Benedict, Richard Ford, Cormac McCarthy, Ernest Gaines, Walter Mosley, Russell Banks, and Don DeLillo all preserve the traditional notion of masculine development as portrayed through violent male action. Yet Wesley contends they do so to demonstrate that violence in fact neither produces power nor promotes the satisfactory entry of young men into a supportive identifying community. By studying the effects of violent representation as it is being rewritten in contemporary literature, Wesley demonstrates that current adaptations by a diverse range of male writers subvert conventional patterns of violent content and generic form to foreground issues of cultural and material power relations.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Marilyn C. Wesley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0813922135\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780813922133\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Virginia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/29\/2003\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.80lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.28w x 0.76d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2004 pg. 1300","brand":"Marilyn C. Wesley","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44790061170943,"sku":"9780813922133","price":23.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7871dd7c-ec15-4ed9-b529-6067598f560a.jpg?v=1707287844","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/violent-adventure-marilyn-c-wesley-9780813922133","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}