American Teen Cinema: Coming of Age on Screen (P5034)

30 credits, Level 6

Spring teaching

Adolescence is one of life’s universal experiences.

On this module, you’ll explore how coming of age is constructed on screen. You’ll study:

• how identity is portrayed – including gender, sexuality, race and class
• popular memory and nostalgia
• the exploitation of film and youth audiences
• how this relatively new film genre has developed and its scholarship.

Considering films such as Rebel Without a Cause (Ray, 1955) and Clueless (Heckerling, 1995), you’ll gain a critical overview of the genre. You’ll also examine evolving industry politics around teen audiences and how the genre took shape, building skills in independent research and analysis.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.