Passage from youth to adulthood : narrative and cultural thresholds / Pierluca Birindelli.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Birindelli, Pierluca.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Youth development.

Young adults--Italy--Social conditions--21st century.

Young adults.

Young adults--Italy--Psychology.

Psychology.

Social conditions.

Italy.

Physical Description:

177 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : University Press of America, 2014.

Summary:

The Passage From Youth to Adulthood explores a society unanchored from culturally endorsed rites of passage, in which young people and adults appear to build their identities within a culture of dependency. Pierluca Birindelli interviewed Italian young adults still living with their parents, focusing on their relations with the bedroom and the objects in it. He then analyzed self-narrations and longer autobiographies written by university students, measuring his impressions against sociological, psychological, and anthropological literature. Exploring the paradigm of what he calls "intergenerational collusion," Birindelli finds fathers failing to act as adults with the tacit complicity of their sons: both are playing to the same script, heedless of the common good, the other, and the future. Finally, integrating the experience of young Americans abroad sparks transcultural reflections about the concept of play and the authenticity of social performance. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Mapping the Land of the Young: Developing a Method 1

1.1 The Idea 1

1.2 Sociological Theory, Practice and Imagination 4

1.3 Researching the Young People in Their Bedrooms 7

1.4 Narrative Concepts and Method 11

1.5 Epiphanies 13

1.6 Telling Stories 14

1.7 Growing Up through Autobiography 15

1.8 New Paths through the Territories of Youth Identity 17

1.9 Potential Areas for Further Research: A New Method? 20

Notes 22

2 The Haven of the Self-room 25

2.1 The Private Sphere, Its Objects and the Narration of the Self 25

2.2 The Home within a Home and Suspension of the Will 27

2.3 The Autobiographical Dwelling: The "Hub" of a Physical and Conceptual Space 30

2.4 The Hermetic Space 31

2.5 The Fortress of the Self 35

2.6 The Bedroom and Biographical Time: Tying and Unravelling 37

2.7 The Memory-Objects 39

2.8 Projection, Empathy, Representation, Transference: Communicating with Yourself 42

2.9 Types and Functions of the Objects 46

2.10 Objects, Placement and Stories: Some Examples 49

2.11 A Solid World or a House of Cards? From the Transitional

Object to the Fetish 52

2.12 The Space-time for Erfahrung: Polar Opposites 54

Notes 57

3 Adolescent Youth: Passages and Rituals for Becoming Adult 59

3.1 The Prolongation of the Youth Phase 59

3.2 Anthropological Thresholds: Rites of Passage 61

3.3 Sociological Thresholds: Eternal Adolescents 65

3.4 The Psycho-social Prospects: Independence and Recognition 67

3.5 Being Young and Being Adult 73

3.6 Unpretentious Awareness and Juvenility: Two Witness Statements 78

Notes 80

4 The Culture of Dependency 83

4.1 Worlds at Arm's Reach and Non-involvement in Public Life 83

4.2 Mistrust of Institutions: A School without Examples 95

4.3 Education and Work: The Lack of Real Challenges 104

Notes 108

5 Escape Routes 111

5.1 Belonging to a Generation 111

5.2 The Courage to Tell Your Story 117

5.3 Sheltered Journeys: The Eternal and Cocooned Return 122

5.4 Fathers and Sons: Intergenerational Collusion 130

Notes 136

6 The Big Game 137

6.1 Passages and Boundaries: Liminal and Limbic Status 137

6.2 Young Americans Playing Abroad 142

6.3 The Experience of Travel 145

6.4 Travel Simulacra and the Political Economy of Carpe Diem 146

6.5 Liminal and Liminoid Experiences 149

6.6 Playing as Reality 152

6.7 The Origins of the Big "Me" Game 154

Notes 156.

ISBN:

0761863893

9780761863892

OCLC:

878023985