Ask Dr. LJ
I've had the idea for what I've wanted to write my dissertation on practically forever--at least since my second year of grad school. But as I work on the research for my prospectus, and as I have conversations with various faculty members and people in the field, I realize I might make myself more marketable for future jobs if I write a more media-studies type dissertation, or at least not one that is strictly and solely based in theater. This is just fine with me, since I find a lot of media and/or cultural studies type incredibly useful to me intellectually. But it also means that I need some help brainstorming. Luckily for me, many people who read this are really smart and encounter or think of a wide variety of media that I wouldn't get to on my own.
SO.
I'm looking for any and all suggestions of films, artworks, plays, and novels that meet most of the following criteria, which are listed in order of importance:
--Representations of children/adolescents/teenagers produced for an ADULT, not an adolescent audience. I.e, I don't want representations of teens that come out of pop music or MTV, since those are geared towards a pre-college audience. I am also largely not interested in YA books, much as I love them, unless they are YA books that have a large cross-over adult audience, for example, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. (Yes, of course Lolita is also on my list.) I am interested in how adults represent adolescents TO THEMSELVES.
--These suggestions are extra useful if issues of sexuality AND/OR knowledge formation/intellectual capability are explicitly at the fore. I'm actually a bit more interested in the questions of epistemology than I am in the questions of sexuality, but the project as a whole aims to investigate how the two are bound up in each other. However, if you have ideas for pieces that seem particularly rich to you that meet the first criteria but not the second, pass them on anyway, please!
--Likewise, more useful if not part of a bildungsroman kind of plot or narrative arc. I.e, not stories that follow a young protagonist through their entire life span. I'm interested in artwork where the youth in question remains youthful for the temporal duration of the piece, whatever that is.
--Written/distributed after WWII
--Written in English
--Extra bonus points if American in origin, but really, anglophone is the main thing
Examples of texts/categories of things I have already thought about, in case such a list might help trigger ideas:
Plays: Arcadia, Top Girls, How I Learned to Drive, The Crucible, The Shape of Things, Equus, In the Blood
Artwork: Diane Arbus' photos of children and teens, that art photographer who got in trouble for taking nudes of her kids whose name I am mis-remembering, modern depictions of expulsion from the Garden of Eden
Performance: Cirque du Soleil shows that focus on a return to youth or a youthful viewpoint, c.f. Corteo, Quidam, Verekai. (Not anglophone, but consumed in the anglophone world)
Categories: Horror films? (Largely geared, however, to a younger audience, so violates category #1),media reports on either delinquency or extraordinary youth.
Others? I know you all have stuff to say about this. ^_^
SO.
I'm looking for any and all suggestions of films, artworks, plays, and novels that meet most of the following criteria, which are listed in order of importance:
--Representations of children/adolescents/teenagers produced for an ADULT, not an adolescent audience. I.e, I don't want representations of teens that come out of pop music or MTV, since those are geared towards a pre-college audience. I am also largely not interested in YA books, much as I love them, unless they are YA books that have a large cross-over adult audience, for example, Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. (Yes, of course Lolita is also on my list.) I am interested in how adults represent adolescents TO THEMSELVES.
--These suggestions are extra useful if issues of sexuality AND/OR knowledge formation/intellectual capability are explicitly at the fore. I'm actually a bit more interested in the questions of epistemology than I am in the questions of sexuality, but the project as a whole aims to investigate how the two are bound up in each other. However, if you have ideas for pieces that seem particularly rich to you that meet the first criteria but not the second, pass them on anyway, please!
--Likewise, more useful if not part of a bildungsroman kind of plot or narrative arc. I.e, not stories that follow a young protagonist through their entire life span. I'm interested in artwork where the youth in question remains youthful for the temporal duration of the piece, whatever that is.
--Written/distributed after WWII
--Written in English
--Extra bonus points if American in origin, but really, anglophone is the main thing
Examples of texts/categories of things I have already thought about, in case such a list might help trigger ideas:
Plays: Arcadia, Top Girls, How I Learned to Drive, The Crucible, The Shape of Things, Equus, In the Blood
Artwork: Diane Arbus' photos of children and teens, that art photographer who got in trouble for taking nudes of her kids whose name I am mis-remembering, modern depictions of expulsion from the Garden of Eden
Performance: Cirque du Soleil shows that focus on a return to youth or a youthful viewpoint, c.f. Corteo, Quidam, Verekai. (Not anglophone, but consumed in the anglophone world)
Categories: Horror films? (Largely geared, however, to a younger audience, so violates category #1),media reports on either delinquency or extraordinary youth.
Others? I know you all have stuff to say about this. ^_^