Date of Award
Spring 5-22-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
First Advisor
Wendy Lee
Second Advisor
Timothy Wientzen
Abstract
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides is widely considered a cult-classic novel. However, the text reveals much deeper concepts that at first may miss the eye. The first-person plural narration of the male narrators unveils a regressive nostalgia where they cannot move on from the suicides of the Lisbon sisters, which occurred in the 1970s, twenty years prior. This paper describes the gendered relationship between the present day of the novel, the 1990s, as a male possessiveness over the 1970s as a female past.
Recommended Citation
Vuillaume, Gabrielle, "Men Will Be Boys: Regressive Nostalgia in The Virgin Suicides" (2021). English Honors Theses. 53.
https://creativematter.skidmore.edu/eng_stu_schol/53
Comments
Content Warning: themes of suicide are discussed throughout this paper.