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Rethinking the Hollywood Teen MovieGender, Genre and Identity

By Rebecca Bowler

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£100.00

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About this book

An analysis of the Hollywood Teen Movie from a variety of key theoretical perspectives

Rethinking the Hollywood Teen Movie is the first academic monograph to consider the aesthetic and narrative potential of this highly popular, yet often overlooked, film genre. Reconsidering tropes such as the male juvenile delinquent figure, the makeover and the teen vampire, the book uses a series of detailed case studies of key films like Rebel Without a Cause, Grease, Heathers and Twilight to explore the genre’s relation to key critical concepts of intersectionality, postfeminism and the posthuman, and provides an innovative overview of the Hollywood teen movie and its construction of teen identity.

Case studies include:
  • Rebel Without a Cause (Nicolas Ray, 1955)
  • Grease (Randel Kleiser, 1978)
  • Heathers (Mark Lehmann, 1989)
  • Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch, 1986)
  • She’s All That (Robert Iscove, 1999)
  • Mean Girls (Mark Waters, 2004)
  • American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)
  • Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, 1987)
  • Easy A (Will Gluck, 2010)
  • Spider-Man (Sam Raimi, 2001)
  • Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008)
  • Chronicle (Josh Trank, 2012)

Reviews

Smith’s work here is distinctively knowledgeable, and it will be highly valued among the evolving studies of youth cinema.　 The genre needs some rethinking, and Smith delivers in her analysis with cogent insights, solid research, and significant aesthetic perspectives that other surveys have elided.
Table of contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

  1. Introduction

  2. Rethinking the Teen Movie

  3. Acting Up: Performing Masculine Delinquency in the Teen Movie

    1. Rebel Without a Cause

      2. (Nicholas Ray, 1955)

    2. Grease

      3. (Randal Kleiser, 1978)

    3. Heathers

      4. (Michael Lehmann, 1989)

  4. Making Over: Gender and Class at the High-School Prom

    1. Pretty in Pink

      2. (Howard Deutch, 1986)

    2. She’s All That

      3. (Robert Iscove, 1999)

    3. Mean Girls

      4. (Mark Waters, 2004)

  5. Looking Back: Nostalgia, Postfeminism and the Teen Movie

    1. American Graffiti

      2. (George Lucas, 1973)

    2. Dirty Dancing

      3. (Emile Ardolino, 1987)

    3. Easy A

      4. (Will Gluck, 2010)

  6. Becoming Other: The Posthuman and the Teen Movie

    1. Spider-Man

      2. (Sam Raimi, 2002)

    2. Twilight

      3. (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008)

    3. Chronicle

      4. (Josh Trank, 2012)

  7. Conclusion: Not Another Teen Movie?

Bibliography

Filmography

About the author

Rebecca Bowler

Frances Smith is Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Sussex. She is the author of 'Rethinking the Hollywood Teen Movie' (Edinburgh University Press, 2017), which combines close textual analysis and critical theory to argue that the genre possesses a distinct narrative and aesthetic.