Teen Film: A Critical Introduction
What 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
Cover
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Modernism Cinema Adolescence
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The Teenager and Teenage Film
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Inventing Teen Film
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Rites of Passage
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Teen Types and Stereotypes
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Teenage Wasteland
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Classification
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Adaptability
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Which TeenFilm?
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Common terms and phrases
1980s teen film adaptation adolescence adult adulthood American Graffiti American Pie Animal House audience Blackboard Jungle boys Bride and Prejudice Buffy central centred Chapter characters cinema claims Clockwork Orange Clueless comedy Considine 1985 contemporary context conventions dance defined delinquency despite discussed Doherty Doherty’s Donnie Darko emphasized example experience fantasy Ferris film’s focuses geek gender genre Gidget Harold and Kumar Harry Potter Heathers high school horror film Hughes ideas about adolescence important j.d. films Johnny Juliet Kaveney Kick-Ass Kids maturity Mean Girls modern adolescence MPAA narrative parents Pictures plot popular problem production prom puberty question ratings reference represents Ridgemont High rite of passage roles romance Romeo Saturday Night Fever Scary Movie scene sexual Shary Sixteen Candles social stars story style subgenre teen film teen horror Teen Movie teenage teenpics television Trainspotting transmedia vampires virginity young youth culture