Fatherhood and Authority in Some Representative Texts of Post-1945 American Literature

Abstract

The purpose of my thesis is to examine the role of the patriarchal characters and the related notion of “fatherhood” in post-1945 American literature through three major works of fiction. I have chosen three novels to be analyzed: J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day and Donald Barthelme’s The Dead Father. The present thesis focuses on one particular aspect of the three novels, namely the father-child relationship. The father can be regarded as representing concepts relating to order and authority. The purpose of my thesis is to provide an analysis of the patterns of authority and of the way the father figures in these novels to fulfill their roles as fathers.