The New Girl

I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere novellen "The New Girl" af Marc Mitchell. Udover analysehjælpen kan du finde et summary af novellen samt idéer til fortolkning og perspektivering.

Præsentation af teksten

Titel: “The New Girl” (2001)
Forfatter: Marc Mitchell
Genre: Short story

Novellen “The New Girl” stammer fra antologien True Tales of American Life, redigeret af den berømte amerikanske forfatter Paul Auster. Bogen indeholder fortællinger, som Auster har indsamlet fra en række forskellige amerikanere. Marc Mitchell er derfor ikke en etableret forfatter, men blot en af de amerikanere, som har leveret en fortælling til Austers antologi.

Note om genre

Selvom fortællingerne i Austers antologi skal forestille at være biografiske (jf. titlen True Tales of American Life), så har de typisk format som noveller og bliver oftest analyseret ud fra en model til novelleanalyse, når man møder dem i undervisningen. Vi har derfor også valgt denne metode til denne study guide. Hvis din lærer i stedet beder dig om at betragte teksten som en biografi (og dermed non-fiction), så har du brug for at få nogle lidt andre analysebegreber i spil. Her kan du måske finde hjælp i vores generelle analysemodel til non-fiction.

Uddrag

Nedenfor kan du læse et kort uddrag fra vores study guide til teksten:

Title

The title of Marc Mitchell’s short story, “The New Girl”, is somewhat vague as it only tells readers the story is about a new girl and might mislead them into thinking that it is about something positive. Upon reading the story, we find out that the title refers to a girl who has recently moved into the neighborhood where the narrator and his friend Allison live.

The title also becomes symbolic of racial difference as the new girl is African American, and she comes to a “white, lower-middle-class neighborhood” (p. 22, l. 15). Her presence and that of her family seem to disrupt the old living conditions as the neighborhood is unwilling to accommodate an African-American family. However, the ‘new’ arrivals do not manage to change the old customs as the family moves away some months later – presumably because of the racism they faced from their neighbors.