Technology, nostalgia, and coming-of-age in Salinger's short fiction

August Robert Deuser, Purdue University

Abstract

The following thesis address how technology and nostalgia interact within three of J. D. Salinger’s short stories from his collection Nine Stories. By analyzing the short fiction, it attempts to uncover the impact of technology and nostalgia on Salinger’s themes of coming-of-age and growth. Drawing on the work of Martin Heidegger, Bernard Stiegler, and Marshall McLuhan, it will show how character growth is influenced by the interaction of technology and nostalgia. The thesis is structured in five sections. It begins with an introduction briefly outlining existing criticism on Salinger, establishing the critical sources relevant to the project, and providing a general thesis to be argued. The introduction addresses relevant scholarship on technology and nostalgia followed by three chapters that address each short story in the context of technology and nostalgia. In the first chapter, it discusses how technology can unlock memory and lead to nostalgia, which in turn leads to growth. The second chapter addresses the link between technology and identity that intensifies with the presence of nostalgia leading to character development. Chapter three reinforces the link between technology, identity, and nostalgia and additionally addresses the healing power of nostalgia within that framework. In the concluding chapter, a short summary of the main points is presented. It finalizes with a suggestion to study other stories from Nine Stories that could be analyzed within a similar context looking at technology, nostalgia, and bildungsroman.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Fielding, Purdue University.

Subject Area

American literature

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