ENG 102 CC: INVENTION OF ADOLESCENCE

CC: INVENTION OF ADOLESCENCE

Representations of American Youth at the Turn of Two Centuries. Adolescence may seem to us now like an inevitable rite of passage, but in fact the concept has a relatively short history: it was only at the beginning of the twentieth century that adolescence began to be theorized in the West as a stage of human development distinct from either childhood or adulthood. Taking this historical watershed as our starting point, this course asks: what characterizes thinking about adolescence in America as it was first defined, and what characterizes thinking about it in the present? How do these ideas inform cultural products like novels, magazines, advice manuals, and advertising? Drawing on a wide range of texts, students will explore the ways that teenage narratives communicate ideas about sexuality and the body; innocence and experience; gender, race, class, and nation; family relationships; and the parameters of childhood and adulthood. They will also encounter scholarship on adolescence in other disciplines by looking at research being undertaken right here at Conn College by faculty from a range of departments.