Male Depression as a Disease of Late Modernity in The Corrections

doi:10.15936/j.cnki.1008-3758.2023.02.017

Abstract

Abstract: American novelist Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections features depression， an increasingly popular mental disorder in our time. The disease haunts the male members of the Lambert family whose symptoms not only support medical findings of male depression， but also reflects the influence of late modernity on mental health. The sociological perspectives from Anthony Giddens and other theorists help to reveal that late modernity fosters the male characters' vulnerability to depression in the novel， but nevertheless offers them opportunities for recovery. Franzen， in writing about the human psyche， reveals the transformation of intimacy and family structure， as well as the life choices of the reflexive subjects in late modernity. The motif of depression in the novel thus connects medicine and literature， and demonstrates Franzen's “correction” of society with realist literature.

Key words: late modernity; The Corrections; depression; male characters

CLC Number:

I106.4

LIU Lu. Male Depression as a Disease of Late Modernity in The Corrections[J]. Journal of Northeastern University(Social Science), 2023, 25(2): 144-150.

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