Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media: Teenage Dreams

by Nick Bentley (Editor), Beth Johnson (Editor), Andrzej Zieleniec (Editor)

This collection explores the representation, articulation and construction of youth subcultures in a range of texts and contexts. It brings together scholars working in literary studies, screen studies, sociology and cultural studies whose research interests lie in the aesthetics and cultural politics of youth. It contributes to, and extends, contemporary theoretical perspectives around youth and youth cultures.
Contributors examine a range of topics, including ‘bad girl’ fiction of the 1950s, novels by subcultural writers such as Colin MacInnes, Alex Wheatle and Courttia Newland, as well as screen representations of Mods, the 1990s Rave culture, heavy metal, and the Manchester scene. Others explore interventions into subcultural theory with respect to metal, subcultural locations, abjection, graffiti cultures, and the potential of subcultures to resist dominant power frameworks in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Genres: Nonfiction

277 pages, Hardcover

Published March 31, 2018

About the author

Nick Bentley is Senior Lecturer in English at Keele University, UK. Previous publications include Contemporary British Fiction: A Reader’s Guide to the Essential Criticism (2018), Martin Amis (2015) and The 2000s: A Decade of Contemporary British Fiction (co-edited with Nick Hubble and Leigh Wilson, 2015).

Reviews

[Tegan]

A fascinating and diverse collection of academic essays that covers a wide range of critical theories with relation to representations of youth subcultures in literature and film. There's a nice consistency in terminology used throughout which can be difficult to find in texts which engage with subcultural theory. I really enjoyed how niche some of the essays are and was impressed by how effectively the critical theory was applied across the collection.

Highly recommended for any scholars looking at representations of youth subcultures in literature and film!