The Master's Thesis deals with the theme of coming-of-age in American literature. The aim of the theoretical part is to provide theoretical framework and the subsequent examination of common narrative strategies and themes characteristic of this specific genre. We will focus more closely on the three key themes of identity, sexuality and death. In the practical part of this thesis these main themes and their use will be examined in selected novels of American literature; Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Jeffrey Eugenides The Virgin Suicides.

In addressing the necessity of cultural transmission from one generation to the next, this ethnographic study examines ways that Indigenous canoe journeys enable communication of ancestral teachings and traditions, particularly to Kw‟umut Lelum youth. The objective is to identify how experiences and interactions within Indigenous canoe journeys, specifically Tribal Journeys, can connect youth to traditions, environments, Elders, other individuals, and each other. Drawing on interviews with adults and participant observation, I consider relational themes of self and identity to explore the cultural impact on the young people as they participate in Tribal Journeys 2010 and symbolic ceremonies within it. Through qualitative inquiry and inductive reasoning, this interpretive epistemological approach includes concepts specific to the Indigenous research paradigm and uses a performative narrative to present results. Kw‟umut Lelum Child and Family Services is a society committed to the well-being of Indigenous children residing within nine Coast Salish communities on Vancouver Island. The agency focuses on family, community, and sacredness of culture as guided by the Snuw‟uy‟ulh model, which uses the teachings of the present to unite the past and future. Tribal Journeys is a significant cultural event that upholds the Snuw‟uy‟ulh principles while facilitating the communication of ancestral teachings and traditions. Keywords: Indigenous, canoe, youth, culture, tradition, Coast Salish, narrative, perform

Submitted by Fabiano Vassallo (fabianovassallo2127@gmail.com) on 2017-05-03T17:37:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Cássia Farias - Narrativas de Amadurecimento.pdf: 1353681 bytes, checksum: eabe941ec96720314f60253d3d4d4217 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Josimara Dias Brumatti (bcgdigital@ndc.uff.br) on 2017-05-09T16:06:54Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Cássia Farias - Narrativas de Amadurecimento.pdf: 1353681 bytes, checksum: eabe941ec96720314f60253d3d4d4217 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-09T16:06:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Cássia Farias - Narrativas de Amadurecimento.pdf: 1353681 bytes, checksum: eabe941ec96720314f60253d3d4d4217 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Na presente dissertação, serão abordadas as relações entre o romance de formação e a literatura juvenil nas literaturas de língua inglesa. Apesar de suas particularidades, os dois gêneros têm em comum o fato de apresentarem contornos pouco definidos. Sendo assim, serão discutidas questões teóricas pertinentes a cada um deles a fim de chegar ao ponto central do trabalho: descrever e caracterizar o que seria o Bildungsroman juvenil. Três obras foram escolhidas para análise, Grandes esperanças (1860), de Charles Dickens, O apanhador no campo de centeio (1951), de J.D. Salinger – que serão usados para falar da tradição do romance de formação e da sua evolução – e Bateria, garotas e a torta perigosa (2004), de Jordan Sonnenblick, escolhido como exemplo paradigmático da manifestação desse gênero na literatura juvenil / This thesis will discuss the relationship between the coming of age novel and young-adult literature in English-language literature. Although each of the two genres has its own peculiarities, neither of them has well-defined contours. Therefore, relevant theoretical aspects of each genre will be examined in order to reach the main goal of this work: to describe and characterize the young-adult Bildungsroman. Three novels were selected for analysis: Great Expectations (1860), by Charles Dickens, The Catcher in The Rye (1951), by J.D. Salinger – both of which will be used to outline the tradition of the coming of age novel and its evolution – and Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pies (2004), by Jordan Sonnenblick, a paradigmatic example of the manifestation of the genre in young-adult literature

Leaving Little Havana is the story of a young girl who leaves her comfortable middle-class home in La Habana just after the Cuban Revolution and, fighting to overcome cultural and language barriers, forges a new life in Miami. Dealing with a torn identity and discovering her voice are at the center of the narrative. After an endless string of escapades, she finally pulls herself together, learns the value of her inner strength by rising above bleak circumstances and gets accepted to journalism school in California. The book examines the devastating effects of immigration on a family and the struggle of a child of Cuban exiles, coming of age in a foreign society, to beat the obstacles that stand in her way to a stable and satisfying life. The narrator shows that Cuban immigrants share similar challenges with all who have aspired to make America their home.

Members of society today embrace multiple communication media for various purposes and intents. Text messaging has been identified as the medium of choice for continual relationship maintenance and text messaging from mobile devices overshadows all other media forms for the support of social connections. Text messaging is changing everything from how operators market their plans to how advertisers and service providers reach consumers. But just as technology usage of social media and internet access are different across generational boundaries, text messaging usage and habits may also be different for various generational groups. The majority of peer-reviewed research regarding text messaging usage habits has focused on adolescent and young adult users with less attention on text messaging usage habits by older adults; there is a scarcity of peer-reviewed research examining cross-generation text messaging habits and texting usage patterns. The primary goal of this study was to assess the similarities and differences in text messaging usage habits, purposes, and support of social connections differentiated by five of the commonly designated generational groups in America; the Post-War Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z. A mixed methods study provided data on the text messaging usage habits of members of the generational groups using a pool of adult college students, members of the researcher’s LinkedIn network, and data from a survey service to determine to what extent differences and similarities exist between users’ text messaging usage habits within each generational group. Results indicated generational group membership has a significant effect on a participant’s messaging volume (UV), text messaging partner choices (TMPC), and text messaging social habits (SH), regardless of gender, education level, or employment status. The older the generational group, the more likely they are to prefer talking over texting and to have issues with the device interface. The Post-War Silent generation texts their spouses the least of any group, while Generation X texts their spouses the most, and all generational groups with the exception of Generation Z would limit texting while driving. Generational characteristics seem to have some influence over texting behaviors. Contributions to the existing body of knowledge in the human computer interaction field include an investigation of factors that contribute to each generational group’s willingness to embrace or reject the text messaging medium, and an investigation into the into how each generation views and exploits the texting medium.

Central Stories is a series of interconnected stories about students at a fictional high school. Each story focuses on a pair or small group of students who are grappling with issues of gender identity, sexual orientation, and changing friendships. These stories explore varying aspects of the coming out processes, as well as attendant character-developments related to adolescence.

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Living in an era where success is embraced as a life style, raises concerns that the alternatives to become, to grow and mature have been limited to a single variety – one where only triumph matters. This is a view that is spread through contemporary popular culture, whether it be in social media, video games, tv-series, films or books. One of its origins can be found in Christopher Vogler’s dramaturgical template The Hero’s Journey. A common motif used in The Hero’s Journey is the Quest-motif; a knight on an adventure seeking the holy Grail; or Indiana Jones on search for the Arch. One of the foremost examples of the Quest-motif in English literature is the medieval poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, but the hero in this tale does not come of age through success, but rather through shame and failure. By comparing the original 1400-century alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with the 2021 film adaption The Green Knight, and relating them to the Hero’s Journey, the aim of this essay is to show that the ways to become are altered in the adaptation and to argue that the film is moulded to fit with the Hero’s Journey. This essay proposes that contemporary story telling lacks alternative ways to become, since modern narrative structures are focused on Coming of Age through success in accordance with the Hero’s Journey. If storytellers can create a greater awareness of the discourse of success and how they themselves are subjects of malleability of this discourse, maybe the contemporary audiences will experience narratives that provide a variety of ways to become, creating a world shaped by diversity and inclusion.

Gli studi sull’adolescenza, sotto varie prospettive, si sono moltiplicati negli ltimi 50 anni a ritmo quasi esponenziale. Le ricerche antropologiche, la psico-pedagogia, la psichiatria clinica e psicodinamica, la genetica, le neuroscienze, la sociologia, le audience studies, celebrity studies e marketing, gli studiosi di ricostruire l’identikit dell’adolescente che spesso assume tratti contraddittori. A partire dagli anni ’50 la cinematografia coglie e valorizza le tendenze della cultura adolescenziale proponendo un set variato di produzioni riconducibili al genere teen movie. Il lavoro presente si propone di esplorare le adolescenze e gli adolescenti della contemporaneità, così come esse vengono raccontante nel genere cinematografico del teen movie hollywoodiano e della sua risposta nell’ambito produttivo italiano. / In the last 50 years the number of studies on adolescence and teenagers has been growing exponentially. From different perspectives and in many fields of research, from anthropology to neurology, from genetics to sociology, marketing and cultural studies, scholars try to trace the identikit of the contemporary teenager. Since the early 50's cinematography captures and highlights trends in teen culture, proposing a set of varied productions belonging to the teen movie genre. The present work aims to explore the contemporary adolescences and teens, the way teen films of Hollywood and the new Italian teen movies reflect them through a narratological lens.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s first call to action is to reduce the number of Indigenous children and youth in care, including keeping young people in culturally appropriate environments. While we work towards this goal, culturally appropriate resources are needed to support children and youth as evidence shows that when Indigenous youth have access to cultural teachings, they have improved physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health outcomes. Our project focused on the protective qualities of Indigenous coming of age teachings. Together with our community partner Surrounded by Cedar Child and Family Services, we worked to develop resources that inform and advocate for a culturally-centered coming of age for urban Indigenous youth living in foster care in Victoria, British Columbia on Lekwungen Territory. This dissertation begins with a literature review to provide the social and historical context surrounding urban Indigenous youth-in-care’s access to coming of age teachings. This is followed by a description of the Indigenous research paradigm that guided our work, what it meant for us to do this project in a good way, and the methods that we used to develop three visual storytelling knowledge sharing tools. Three manuscripts are presented, two published and one submitted, that reflect a strength-based vision of coming of age shared by knowledge holders who participated in our community events. The first manuscript retells the events of the knowledge holder’s dinner, where community members shared their perspectives on four questions related to community engagement and youth support. An analysis of the event’s transcripts revealed key themes including the responsibility of creating safe-spaces for youth, that coming of age is a community effort, and the importance of youth self-determining their journey. A graphic recording and short story are used to illustrate and narrate the relationship between key themes and related signifiers. This manuscript highlights the willingness of the community to collectively support youth in their journeys to adulthood. The second manuscript focuses on our two youth workshops that had the objective of understanding what rites of passage youth in SCCFS’s care engage with and how they learn what cultural teachings were most important to them. The findings suggest that when youth experience environments of belonging, and know they are ‘part of something bigger’, qualities like self-determination, self-awareness, and empowerment are strengthened. The third manuscript focuses on how we translated our project findings into different storytelling modalities using an Indigenist arts-based methodological approach. The project findings provided the inspiration and content for a fictional story called Becoming Wolf, which was adapted into a graphic novel, and a watercolour infographic. These knowledge sharing media present our project findings in accessible and meaningful ways that maintain the context and essences of our learnings. This research illustrates how Indigenous coming of age is an experience of interdependent teachings, events, and milestones, that contribute to the wellness of the body, mind, heart, and spirit of youth and the Indigenous community more broadly. Through our efforts, we hope to create a shared awareness about the cultural supports available to urban Indigenous youth that can contribute to lifelong wellness. / Graduate