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In this course, we will look at stages of adolescence and various experiences of "coming of age" through novels, memoirs, short stories, music, poetry and film. Students will receive a primer on adolescent development, and will integrate and experience that information through the lives and sexual awakenings of a variety of characters in coming of age stories that depict the experience of adolescence and the sexual growth of their characters. We will reflect on the lives of adolescents from around the world, examine their journeys through the stages of adolescent development, and think critically about how culture, ethnicity, social class, religion, sexual minority status, and gender affect their journey through the teen years. This generation of students is one of the first generations to grow up completely in the age of AIDS. Bringing the current cultural context into the classroom, and looking at how decisions around adolescence and sexuality were different in the pre-AIDS stories we read, we will attempt to make connections to the way the culture has changed the experience of adolescence, as well as those places that are constant in our experience of adolescence, across generations and across cultures. In examining the lives of a variety of adolescents who are coming to similar realizations, often through very different identities and experiences, students will be able to identify pubertal signs, "normal adolescent development," and look at their own parallel growth process to see where they identify with the various characters we get to know through literature, music and film. Each member of the class will bring in music and/or poetry depicting what it means to have one's world forever changed by the experience of adolescence. Ultimately, students will take a close look at why the adolescent years are so pivotal for all of us to understand and reflect on in terms of our overall human development. REQUIRED READINGS: Rubyfruit Jungle, Rita Mae Brown Instructor(s): Amy Jo Goddard Time(s): Tues and Thurs, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm Place(s): bldg. 494, Room 143 << Back |
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