I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere novellen "Solo Dance" af Jayne Anne Phillips, som optræder i antologien When Less is More - American Minimalist Fiction (s.7). Du kan også finde et summary af teksten samt idéer til fortolkning og perspektivering.
Præsentation af teksten
Titel: “Solo Dance” (1979)
Forfatter: Jayne Anne Philips
Genre: Short story
Jayne Anne Phillips (b. 1952) er en amerikansk forfatter, som både skriver noveller og romaner.
Novellen "Solo Dance" blev udgivet i 1979 i Phillips' første novellesamling Black Tickets. Novellesamlingen vandt Sue Kaufman prisen for bedste debutudgivelse.
Uddrag
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Isolation
The theme of isolation is explored both directly and indirectly in connection with the characters. The title of the story – “Solo Dance” - also hints at the theme of isolation, which is then revealed to refer to all characters in the story. The daughter, father, and mother are each focused on themselves, each doing a “solo dance” which isolates them from each other and even from themselves.
The woman is both physically and emotionally isolated from her parents – she has not been home in a long time (l. 1), and she does not communicate with her father, respond to his worries about the divorce, or acknowledge her own emotions about her relationship with her parents and about her father’s illness.
The father is physically isolated in the hospital, and we are never explicitly told whether he makes a recovery or whether he dies. Emotionally, he is isolated in a place of constant preoccupation with his divorce, which happened two years earlier. His emotions surface, and he tries to discuss the issue with his daughter, but this only deepens their isolation from each other, as he never seems to ask her about herself.
