After Pomp and Circumstance: High School Reunion as an Autobiographical Occasion

by Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi

Book Overview

Menacing, nerve-racking, uncomfortably intrusive, the high school reunion has become a dreaded encounter with past and present for many Americans. It is a moment of both heightened self-awareness and public presentation, insisting that we account for ourselves, not merely to our own satisfaction, but to the satisfaction of others as well. For sociologist Vinitzky-Seroussi, the high school reunion presents an ideal forum in which to explore the ongoing...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226856690
• ISBN13: 9780226856698
• Release Date: June 1998
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book on high school class reunions

As someone that was the historian at my 10-year high school class reunion in 1998, I can relate to this book. I saw this book at a library three years ago and ordered it a few times. I have noticed the excitement from people who did come to the reunion and the resistance from those who didn't. I would have liked it if they included something of classmates writing 20-page letters to each other after the reunion. Writing about what they were doing at 16, 17 and 18, past memories, favorite subjects and teachers at school, what the first 3 months after graduation was like, adult life,moving so many times to other states, career changes, being married (if possible) and having 2 to 3 kids and so forth. I did that too, but only wrote one or two-page letters to classmates. Class reunions do change people's lives drastically, myself included. You might end up calling your fellow classmates every day from now on, instead of your usual round of friends. They become your friends for LIFE. So it's beyond just the giddiness or gushiness or the "Oh my God!" reactions of seeing the classmates again after a 10-, 15- or 20-year hiatus. I found after my own class' reunion that they are very busy and hard to catch up. I make the best with writing and E-mailing to them as well as meeting them. I have to understand that they're in their late 30s (33-38) now and not 18 anymore. That they're very committed to their current careers and families and going for higher goals. And they're thinking forward, not looking back too much. So I am pleased that someone wrote this book to explain the impact high school reunions have on people who attended them. The writer does a good job analyzing and describing several reunions she attended. Some reactions are happy, some are bitter and some wished that they didn't attend their reunions at all. To me, going to class reunions is another big step for anyone, to confront their past, to accept your present and to be with your fellow classmates for future times.