Special Topics: Coming of Age Stories

Course available by permission of instructor
only.
This course proposes a broad reading of the
coming of age story, framing it not just as a
specific moment of adolescent development, but as
a narrative of personal transformation most often
concerned with transgression and epiphany.
Through an examination of classic, independent
and avant-garde examples of this vast genre, we
will investigate thematic questions of sex and
sexuality, the body, spiritual awakening, ethics,
race, gender, nationality and community,
autobiography, anger and violence. We will also
be concerned with a range of production issues
that arise in the making of such films, such as
working with child actors, staging sex scenes,
visual and dramatic treatments of rites of
passage, and the presence of nostalgia and
episodic structure in writing coming of age
stories. Assignments include several short
personal writings or cinematic essays, and either
a one-hour seminar based on a germane topic or a
substantial, relevant artistic work.