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In this dissertation, I bring together film theory, literary criticism, anthropology and psychology to develop a paradigm for the study of teen films that can also be effectively applied to other areas of pop culture studies as well as literary genres. Expanding on Thomas Doherty's discussion of 1950s teen films and Ian Jarvie's study of films as social criticism, I argue that teen films are a discrete genre that appeals to adolescents to the exclusion of other groups. Teen films subvert social mores of the adult world and validate adolescent subculture by reflecting that subculture's values and viewpoints. The locus of this subversion is the means by which teenagers, through the teen films, vicariously experience anxiety-provoking adult subjects such as sexual experimentation and physical violence, particularly the extreme expressions of sex and violence that society labels taboo. Through analyzing the rhetoric of teen lifestyle films, specifically the teen romance and sex farce, I explore how the films offer teens vicarious experience of many adolescent "firsts." In addition, I claim that teen films can effectively appropriate other genres while remaining identifiable as teen films. I discuss hybrid films which combine the teen film with the science fiction genre, specifically Back to the Future and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and the musical genre, specifically Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Dirty Dancing. In my discussion of the slasher film, specifically the Halloween. Friday the 13th. and A Nightmare on Elm Street cycles, I highlight how teen films function as a safe place to explore the taboo. Finally, I discuss the way in which the teen film genre has evolved in the 1990s due in part to shifts in social and economic interests. The teen films of the 1990s include the viewpoints of women, minorities, the handicapped, and homosexuals and question the materialistic ethos of the 1980s films.

This thesis examines representations of youth in the American “teen film”. As a critical category, the teen film is still developing, but it has been defined by a number of critics as being—ostensibly—about and for youth.¹ This thesis engages with teen film literature to test the meaning of these terms. As a genre that is precariously positioned between parent culture and youth audiences, teen film’s narratives are always negotiated and the degree to which it is about and for youth is debatable. I argue that rather than being about and for youth in simple terms, the teen film deploys narratives about a certain idea of youth that is distinctly American and historically contingent; in other words, while certainly consumed by youth and depicting narratives that feature youthful characters and themes, the teen film genre contributes to discourses that are about and for the idea of America. My argument contributes to the critical literature on teen film by exploring the ways the teen film functions as a representation of American ideology. It outlines how, in America, the category of “youth” has historically functioned as an important site of ideological inscription in which to construct an idealised future. In the early 20th century (via the discourse of adolescence), youth was specifically idealised as a frontier space, a site in which to symbolically reconcile troubling anxieties and contradictions left unresolved at the closure of the American frontier. Up to the end of World War II, Hollywood cinema functioned similarly, as a site in which the troubling contradiction between the national ideals of individualism and community might be mobilised and contained, via the “reconciliatory” narrative.² The teen film emerged in the period immediately after World War II, when Hollywood’s efforts to resolve the tensions inherent in frontier mythology were foundering. The teen film might have represented a convergence of the potential reconciliatory powers of cinema and youth, but rather than assisting in the resolution of American ideological crises, the teen film problematised them. Screening youth as an inherently rebellious space, a “frontier” space, facilitated the breakdown of the reconciliatory pattern. In the teen films of the 1950s, the conflict between the ideals of individualism and community proved irreconcilable. Subsequent teen film cycles stage and re-stage the conflict between individual and community, offering repeated takes on what those fundamentally “American” ideals mean in each generation. This thesis traces developments in the representation of the conflict between individual and community through four of the teen film’s dominant cycles—delinquency films from the 1950s, slasher films and animal comedies from the 1970s-to-mid-1980s, and makeover films from the late-1990s-to-early-2000s. Proceeding from the initial deliberation over the terms about and for youth, I include discussions of films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Porky’s (1982) while excluding films like River’s Edge (1986) and Kids (1995), which certainly represent youth, but are typically not viewed by them. ¹ This definition is supported by the work of Catherine Driscoll and Stephen Tropiano. ² This thesis works from Robert B. Ray’s discussion of the “reconciliatory” narrative. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2009

This thesis examines representations of youth in the American “teen film”. As a critical category, the teen film is still developing, but it has been defined by a number of critics as being—ostensibly—about and for youth.¹ This thesis engages with teen film literature to test the meaning of these terms. As a genre that is precariously positioned between parent culture and youth audiences, teen film’s narratives are always negotiated and the degree to which it is about and for youth is debatable. I argue that rather than being about and for youth in simple terms, the teen film deploys narratives about a certain idea of youth that is distinctly American and historically contingent; in other words, while certainly consumed by youth and depicting narratives that feature youthful characters and themes, the teen film genre contributes to discourses that are about and for the idea of America. My argument contributes to the critical literature on teen film by exploring the ways the teen film functions as a representation of American ideology. It outlines how, in America, the category of “youth” has historically functioned as an important site of ideological inscription in which to construct an idealised future. In the early 20th century (via the discourse of adolescence), youth was specifically idealised as a frontier space, a site in which to symbolically reconcile troubling anxieties and contradictions left unresolved at the closure of the American frontier. Up to the end of World War II, Hollywood cinema functioned similarly, as a site in which the troubling contradiction between the national ideals of individualism and community might be mobilised and contained, via the “reconciliatory” narrative.² The teen film emerged in the period immediately after World War II, when Hollywood’s efforts to resolve the tensions inherent in frontier mythology were foundering. The teen film might have represented a convergence of the potential reconciliatory powers of cinema and youth, but rather than assisting in the resolution of American ideological crises, the teen film problematised them. Screening youth as an inherently rebellious space, a “frontier” space, facilitated the breakdown of the reconciliatory pattern. In the teen films of the 1950s, the conflict between the ideals of individualism and community proved irreconcilable. Subsequent teen film cycles stage and re-stage the conflict between individual and community, offering repeated takes on what those fundamentally “American” ideals mean in each generation. This thesis traces developments in the representation of the conflict between individual and community through four of the teen film’s dominant cycles—delinquency films from the 1950s, slasher films and animal comedies from the 1970s-to-mid-1980s, and makeover films from the late-1990s-to-early-2000s. Proceeding from the initial deliberation over the terms about and for youth, I include discussions of films like Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Porky’s (1982) while excluding films like River’s Edge (1986) and Kids (1995), which certainly represent youth, but are typically not viewed by them. ¹ This definition is supported by the work of Catherine Driscoll and Stephen Tropiano. ² This thesis works from Robert B. Ray’s discussion of the “reconciliatory” narrative. / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2009

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.