Revisions of the American Adam

<div>The figure of the American Adam is a prevalent myth<br/>in US cultural history. Defined by R.W.B. Lewis in 1955 as "the hero of new<br/>adventure . . .an individual standing alone, self-reliant and self-propelling,<br/>ready to confront whatever awaited him with the aid of his own unique and<br/>inherent resources", the figure is discernable in the American renaissance<br/>writers and in the imagery of the frontiersman, cowboy, gangster as well as in<br/>the heroes of US action movies. <br/><br/></div><div> </div><div>Focusing on the American Adam as a paradigm of masculine identity formation,<br/>this monograph examines how this fantasy of an imaginary ideal identity has held an ideological sway over US identity<br/>in the main. Taking in a range of cultural texts, Jonathan Mitchell's study explores<br/>the complexities and contradictions of Adam's ‘real' condition of existence to show<br/>how the paradigm influences both masculinity and subsequently hegemonic US<br/>identity as represented throughout twentieth-century US culture. <br/></div>>