Reading & Composition

What does it mean to “grow up”? What does it mean to undergo adolescence, to transition from childhood to adulthood? What do these categories mean, and have they always meant the same things? The answers to these questions are not as obvious as one might imagine. As the conceptualization of childhood evolved alongside historically changing ideas of the human, so too did the ways artists, philosophers, politicians, and writers engaged with the transitory state of adolescence. As we find ourselves in a period where the figure of the adolescent is particularly fraught and the role of adolescents in politics, literature, and art become part of an international discussion, it might serve us well to take a holistic and comparative look at the many complex places the idea of the adolescent has taken literature and film.

In this course, we will be examining texts from various genres, time periods, literary traditions, and cultures that take on the idea of adolescence. Our approach will center on close reading of the texts on the syllabus, alongside intensive writing. We will work on developing the skills needed to read texts on the college level, to notice and articulate the relationships between form and content, to develop a literary argument, and to express complex, nuanced ideas in writing.