Rethinking the Hollywood Teen Movie

Gender, Genre and Identity

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by Frances Smith

Type

Studies

Subject

Countries > United States

Keywords

teen movies, Hollywood

Publishing date

2017

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 256 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4744-1309-1

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Book Presentation:
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)

About the Author:
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.

Press 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.– Timothy Shary, author of Generation Multiplex (2002; 2014) and Teen Movies (2005)

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press