Teen Film: A Critical IntroductionWhat makes a film a teen film? And why, when it represents such powerful and enduring ideas about youth and adolescence, is teen film usually viewed as culturally insignificant? Teen film is usually discussed as a representation of the changing American teenager, highlighting the institutions of high school and the nuclear family, and experiments in sexual development and identity formation. But not every film featuring these components is a teen film and not every teen film is American. Arguing that teen film is always a story about becoming a citizen and a subject, Teen Film presents a new history of the genre, surveys the existing body of scholarship, and introduces key critical tools for discussing teen film. Surveying a wide range of films including The Wild One, Heathers, Akira and Donnie Darko, the book's central focus is on what kind of adolescence teen film represents, and on teen film's capacity to produce new and influential images of adolescence. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 7 | |
| 9 | |
2 The Teenager and Teenage Film | 27 |
3 Inventing Teen Film | 45 |
Part II Film Teens | 63 |
4 Rites of Passage | 65 |
5 Teen Types and Stereotypes | 83 |
7 Classification | 121 |
8 Adaptability | 135 |
9 Which TeenFilm? | 149 |
Notes | 162 |
Annotated Guide to Further Reading | 175 |
Filmography includes television | 177 |
| 183 | |
| 193 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adaptation adolescence adult American Animal appeared associated audience become begins boys Breakfast Club central centred Chapter characters cinema claims classification clearly close Clueless concerned consider Considine contemporary context conventions critics dance defined despite directed discussed Doherty emergence emphasized example expectations experience fact Ferris field Figure film’s finally friends genre Gidget girl high school Hughes ideas identity important institutions interest John Kaveney Kids later limits maturity means moral narrative offers opening parents particular party Pictures play plot popular problem production question ratings reference relation released remains represents roles romance scene sexual Shary social stars stoner film story stress style success suggests takes teen film teen horror teenage texts understand virginity Warner Bros young youth culture