AMERICAN STUDIES 315

Cultural History of American Teenagers

Fall 2003

MWF 9:00 – 10:00 A.M. · Parlin Hall, Rm. 306 (unique #26295)

Instructor: Bill Bush

Email: wbush@mail.utexas.edu Phone: 471-7277

Office Hours: GAR420, MWF 10:00 – 11:00 A.M., or by appointment

This introductory-level course begins with a basic question: What has “growing up” meant for different generations of Americans? Guided by conventional wisdom, we tend to view turmoil-ridden adolescence as a normal phase in the life course, even as we are bombarded routinely with warnings that the latest generation of youth is the worst one yet. These claims today seem to preach to the choir. Divided by culture, politics, class, race, religion, gender, and sexuality, most American adults nevertheless generally share the expectation that their teenage children have entered their peak years of rebellion, “bad” behavior, experimentation, and self-discovery.

We will examine both the experiences of actual teenagers and ideas about teenagers in different eras of American history, focusing especially on the twentieth century. Among the questions we will explore: Is adolescence a stage in the life course that transcends history? Do teenagers from distinct social groups and cultures share similar experiences? How have adults constructed institutions such as the high school or the juvenile justice system to channel the supposed energies of youth? What types of cultures have young people themselves created, and how are they rooted in the larger social conflicts of their particular historical moments? How have experts and intellectuals shaped popular attitudes about teenagers?

This course also introduces students to the interdisciplinary methods of American Studies, which combines the approaches and insights of history, literature, memoir, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cultural studies, and the visual arts. Students will learn to think historically about teenagers and critically about the idea of the teenager; read and analyze a variety of texts such as film, music, visual art, literature, and academic writing; give oral presentations; evaluate primary and secondary research materials; and execute a major research paper of ten to twelve pages in length.

Your ability to read and communicate thoughtfully about what you read will significantly determine your final grade. Keeping up with the reading schedule, viewing assigned films, completing papers in a timely fashion, and attending class meetings prepared to discuss assigned texts are each CRUCIAL!!!!

Assignments: In-class midterm exam: 20%; Take-home final exam: 15%; Research paper (10-12 pages): 35%; Three short film response papers (2-3 pages): 15%; Class presentation: 10%; Class participation and attendance: 5%

Grade Scale: A: 90-100; B: 80-89; C: 70-79; D: 60-69; F: 0-59

Exam Format: The midterm exam will be closed-book and based on course material covered to date. It will consist of four short identification questions (choice of six), and one longer essay question (choice of two). The final exam will be a take-home assignment in which you will answer one comprehensive essay question (choice of two, 5-6 pages typed).

Paper Format: Papers must be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point type size with one-inch margins.

Attendance Policy: Students need to be in class to succeed. Although class participation and attendance only amount to 5% of the final grade, more than four unexcused absences will result in the loss of a letter grade.

Make-Up Policy: Extensions on the graded assignments will be granted ONLY in the case of a medical or family emergency, or if you have official, documented University of Texas business outside of campus. You must notify me BEFORE the due date; failure to do so will result in the automatic subtraction of a letter grade. Assignments turned in late without an excuse will lose one letter grade for each day past the due date.

Civility Code: Much of our class time will be spent in discussion. Therefore it is important that we show respect for each other by being attentive and polite. I encourage spirited debate but expect that we will be civil in all our discussions.

Academic Dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating; plagiarism (the appropriation of another’s work and unauthorized incorporation of that work in one’s own written work offered for credit); and collusion (the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing college work offered for credit). These acts will be subject to academic penalties.

Special Needs Policy: Any student with a documented disability (physical or cognitive) who requires academic accommodations should contact the Services for Students with Disabilities area of the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259 (voice) or 471-4641 (TTY for users who are deaf or hard of hearing) as soon as possible to request an official letter outlining authorized accommodations.

Required Reading List:

Joe Austin and Michael Nevin Willard, eds., Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth Century America

Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi

Louis Sachar, Holes

Selected articles on UT Electronic Reserve

Books are available for purchase at the University Co-op, other area textbook stores, and through online vendors such as Powells.com and Amazon.com.

Required Films:

Rebel Without a Cause (1954)

Devil’s Playground (2002)

Juvies (1999)

Films will be shown in UGL during scheduled screening times (see below). However, if you know in advance that you have a scheduling conflict, you must notify me and arrange to view the film privately at another time BEFORE the scheduled class screening date.

Course Web Page: Students can access several documents on the course web page, including the syllabus, assignment sheets, and a bibliography for research papers. The course web page is set up through Blackboard, an online teaching aid used by UT. From the UT home page, log in to UT Direct using your EID name and password. Scroll down a little and click on “Blackboard” on the right. You should then see a list of your courses; click on our class title and you should arrive at the course web page.

Electronic Reserves: Students can access ER documents in two ways. The easiest way is to use the “External Links” button on the course web page. A second way is to click on the “Access Electronic Reserves” link on the UTCAT home page. Students should treat electronic documents with the same seriousness as other reading assignments; they will be part of class discussions as well as exams. If you have trouble accessing ER documents, please contact either the ER librarian or me.

RESOURCES

The Undergraduate Writing Center, located on the second floor of the Undergraduate Library, is a valuable resource for students who need assistance writing papers. Take advantage of it! Additionally, the UWC maintains a useful website with tips on a host of writing problems: http://uwc.fac.utexas.edu/pages/students/handouts.html

Bartleby.com is a free online site that gives you access to the Columbia Encyclopedia, the American Heritage Dictionary, The Cambridge History, The World Factbook, Roget’s Thesaurus, four quotation books (including Columbia, Bartlett’s, and Roget’s), four usage books (including Fowler’s, Strunk’s, and Mencken’s), and many other reference books.

http://www.bartleby.com/65/

Week One: Getting Started

8/27 W: Introductions and Course Syllabus

8/29 F: LECTURE: Why Do We Have Teenagers? A Historical Overview

Week Two: Modernization and Modernity: The Scaffolding of Adolescence

9/1 M: NO CLASS – LABOR DAY HOLIDAY

9/3 W: DISCUSSION: The Meaning of Coming of Age: Culture, History, Biology

READ: Brumberg, The Body Project, introduction & pp. 1-26

FILM CLIP: Inside the Teenage Brain (documentary)

9/5 F: LECTURE: Lurching Towards Modern Adolescence: Working-Class Youth Culture in Industrial America

Week Three: Constructing the “Savage Stage”

9/8 M: LECTURE: The Invention of Juvenile Justice: The State as Parent

9/10 W: DISCUSSION: Early Theories of Adolescence

READ: Getis, “Experts and Juvenile Delinquency,” pp. 20-30, Generations of Youth; Mead, “Adolescent Girls in Samoa and America,” ER

FILM CLIP: Knock on Any Door (1937)

9/10 W: FILM SCREENING, 7PM, FAC344 (in UGL): Devil’s Playground

9/12 F: DISCUSSION: Devil’s Playground

DUE IN CLASS: Film response paper #1

Week Four: The Contested Terrain of Coming of Age

9/15 M: DISCUSSION: Mothers Against Daughters

READ: Ruiz, “Star Struck: Acculturation, Adolescence, and Mexican American Women, 1920-1950,” ER; Odem, “Teenage Girls, Sexuality, and Working-Class Parents in Early Twentieth-Century California,” pp. 50-60, Generations of Youth

9/17 W: LECTURE: Making the Modern School: The Peer World of “Campus Life”

9/19 F: DISCUSSION: Varieties of High School Experience in the 1930s and 40s

READ: Bloom, “Rolling With the Punches,” pp. 65-79; Fass, “Creating New Identities,” pp. 95-115, Generations of Youth

Week Five: Making Citizens in Depression and War

9/22 M: LECTURE: Youth, Citizenship, and the New Deal

9/24 W: DISCUSSION: The Creation of Young Fandom in Interwar America

READ: Scheiner, “Deanna Durbin Devotees,” pp. 81-94, Generations of Youth

FILM CLIP: TBA

9/26 F: LECTURE: “Tomorrow They Will Lead:” Teenagers and World War II

Week Six: Resistance and Rebellion in the War and Early Postwar Years

9/29 M: DISCUSSION: The Zoot Suit and the Politics of Style in Wartime

READ: Capp, “Zoot Suit Yokum,” ER; Kelley, “The Riddle of the Zoot,” pp. 136-151, Generations of Youth

10/1 W: DISCUSSION: Growing Pains: The Alienated Teenager as Cultural Icon

READ: Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

10/3 F: EXAM REVIEW

Week Seven: Normalizing Rebellion: The “Golden Age” of American Youth

10/6 M: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

10/8 W: LECTURE: The Psychology of Affluence: Defining the Postwar Teenager

DISCUSSION: Final Paper Assignment

10/8 W: FILM SCREENING, 7:30 PM, FAC344 (in UGL): Rebel Without a Cause

10/10 F: DISCUSSION: Rebel Without a Cause

DUE IN CLASS: Film response paper #2

Week Eight: Delinquency Scares

10/13 M: LIBRARY TOUR: Meet in the lobby of PCL

(Sign up for office consultation on paper topic Tuesday or Wednesday)

10/15 W: LECTURE: Popular Culture and Juvenile Delinquency: A National Panic

FILM CLIP: Blackboard Jungle (1955)

10/17 F: LECTURE: Teenage Crime Wave: Youth Gangs and the Making of the Urban Crisis

Week Nine: Creating a Youth Market in Postwar America

10/20 M: DISCUSSION: Selling Gender

READ: Brumberg, Body Project, pp. 27-192

FILM CLIP: The Merchants of Cool (“The Midriff”)

10/22 W: LECTURE: Our Movie-Made Children: The Rise of Teenpics

FILM CLIP: I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Beach Party, and others

10/24 F: LECTURE/DISCUSSION: The Conquest of Cool: Rock and Roll and the Advertising Revolution

READ: Rodriguez, “The Discovery of Rock and Roll,” ER

DUE IN CLASS: Paper proposal

Week Ten: Conflict and Consensus

10/27 M: LECTURE: The Medium and the Message: Young Adult Fiction in Postwar America

10/29 W: DISCUSSION: Teenage Fiction Today

READ: Sachar, Holes

10/31 F: LECTURE/DISCUSSION: From Campus to Nation: The Rise of the New Left

READ: Bailey, “From Panty Raids to Revolution,” pp. 187-204, Generations of Youth

FILM CLIP: Berkeley in the Sixties (documentary)

Week Eleven: African American Students and Civil Rights

11/3 M: LECTURE: A Generation Rejects the Color Line: The Civil Rights Movement

FILM CLIP: Eyes on the Prize: Bridge to Freedom (documentary)

11/5 W: DISCUSSION: Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, part I

11/7 F: DISCUSSION: Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, part II

Week Twelve: Revolutions and Counterrevolutions

11/10 M: DISCUSSION: Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, parts III-IV

11/12 W: LECTURE/DISCUSSION: “The Most Oppressed of All Minorities:” The Children’s Rights Movement and Juvenile Justice Reform in Texas

READ: Coloff, “Does Napoleon Beazley Deserve to Die?” ER

FILM CLIP: This Child is Rated X (1971)

11/12 W: FILM SCREENING, 7PM, FAC344 (in UGL): Juvies

11/14 F: DISCUSSION: Juvies

DUE IN CLASS: Film response paper #3

Week Thirteen: Youth Cultures After the 1960s

11/17 M: DISCUSSION: Students, Gangbangers, and the Chicano Movement

READ: Chavez, “Birth of a New Symbol;” Rangel, “Art and Activism in the Chicano Movement,” pp.205-239, Generations of Youth

11/19 W: DISCUSSION: The Emergence of the Hip-Hop Generation

READ: Walser, “Clamor and Community,” pp.293-310; Lipsitz, “Hip Hop Hearings,” pp. 395-411, Generations of Youth

11/21 F: DISCUSSION: Punk Bohemians and the New Geographies of Youth

READ: Duncombe, “Let’s All Be Alienated,” pp 427-448, Generations of Youth

FILM CLIP: Dogtown and Z-Boys (2002)

DUE IN CLASS: Draft of Research Paper (3 copies)

Week Fourteen: Peer Critiques of Papers

11/24 M: DISCUSSION: Paper Drafts

11/26 W: DISCUSSION: Paper Drafts

11/28 F: NO CLASS – THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY

Week Fifteen: Drugs and Downward Mobility: The End of Teenagers?

12/1 M: LECTURE: “Parents, Peers, and Pot:” The Making of the War on Drugs

12/3 W: DISCUSSION: Youth, Race, and the Post-Industrial Future

READ: Kelley, “Looking to Get Paid,” ER; Roediger, “What to Make of Wiggers,” pp. 358-366, Generations of Youth

12/5 F: LAST DAY OF CLASS: Course Evaluation and Semester Review

DUE IN CLASS: Final Draft – Research Papers

(Hand out Take-Home Final Exam)

FINAL TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE AT 4:00 P.M., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, IN GARRISON HALL RM. 303