Adolescence in American Fiction and Film

Module code: EN2004

Holden Caulfield, the seventeen-year-old narrator of J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), dismisses stories about growing up as ‘all that David Copperfield kind of crap’, but coming-of-age remains one of the most popular subjects in American culture. Adolescence is a challenging and exciting life stage, but it is not same for everyone.

On this module we read and view diverse coming of age narratives in fiction and film and consider not only what these stories have in common, but also the purpose and effect of texts that diverge from the genre’s traditional focus on white, heterosexual male experience. What impact do gender, sexuality, race and social class have on growing up?

Texts including Paule Marshall’s ground-breaking novel, Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959), the film Splendor in the Grass (X-rated on its release in 1961), Brandon Hobson’s intriguing novel of foster care and rebellion, Where the Dead Sit Talking (2018), and contemporary films including Juno (2007), Moonlight (2016) and The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) offer us a range of voices and perspectives on teenage experience.