American Teen Cinema: Coming of Age on Screen (P5034)

30 credits, Level 6

Autumn teaching

In this module, you’ll have the opportunity to consider how coming of age is constructed on screen.

Topics you'll study include:

• constructions of identity, including gender, sexuality, race and class.
• popular memory and nostalgia
• the exploitation film and youth audiences
• the construction of a relatively new film genre and its scholarship.

Considering films such as Rebel Without a Cause (Ray, 1955) and Clueless (Heckerling, 1995), this module aims to provide you with a critical overview of the genre. You'll also have the opportunity to consider the changing industry politics around teen audience and the shape of the genre as it is being formed.

Through weekly seminars and screenings, you will deepen your skills in independent research, and higher-level contextual and textual analysis.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 55 hours of contact time and about 245 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.