Actor-network theory at the movies : reassembling the contemporary American teen film with Latour / Björn Sonnenberg-Schrank.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sonnenberg-Schrank, Björn, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teen films--History and criticism.

Teen films.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xx, 255 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2020]

Summary:

This book is one of the first to apply the theoretical tools proposed by French philosopher Bruno Latour, through the example of the American Teen Film genre. With a particular focus on Actor-Network Theory (ANT), the book delineates how Teen Film has established itself as one of Hollywoods most consistent and dynamic genres. While many productions recycle formulaic patterns, coming-of-age narratives have become an arena for aesthetically and politically progressive, experimental, and complex films. The case studies develop a Latourian film semiotics as a flexible analytical approach which raises new questions, not only about the history, types and tropes of teen films, but also about their aesthetics, mediality, materiality, and composition. Through an exploration of a wide and diverse range of examples, including those by female and African-American directors, urban and rural perspectives, and non-heteronormative sexualities, this book demonstrates how the classic 'teen film canon has been renewed, expanded and regurgitated.

Contents:

Introduction

Chapter 1

Circulating Reference and The DUFF

Chapter 2

Participant, Intermediary, Mediator in Winter's Bone and Boyhood

Chapter 3

Technology and Drugs as Quasi-Objects in Dope

Chapter 4

Visualization, Images and Inscriptions in The Diary of a Teenage Girl

Chapter 5

The Laboratory of the Self: (Re-)Assembling Adolescent Identities in Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Chapter 6

Looking Back to the Future. Lady Bird and the new Era of Revisionist Teen Film

Conclusion and Outlook.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes filmography.

ISBN:

9783030312862

3030312860

OCLC:

1112426410