Tag Archives: adolescence

Fanny Burney Bolsters Young People

By Robin Bates | Published: June 4, 2013

Fanny Burney’s “Evelina” is still very relevant to the lives of young people.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

The Dark Knight and Adolescent Gloom

By Robin Bates | Published: August 3, 2012

“Dark Knight Rises” confirms the younger generation’s pessimism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Parents, Kids, Schools & Banned Books

By Robin Bates | Published: May 23, 2012

Parents pressure schools to ban books because they want to protect their children. Their children want the books because they have a different set of needs.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

When Werther-Fever Upended Europe

By Robin Bates | Published: May 9, 2012

Goethe’s “Sorrows of Young Werther” created a sensation in 1774, with a young cult following and older attackers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Kiki Ostrenga as Sister Carrie

By Robin Bates | Published: July 11, 2011

Columnist David Brooks recently turned to Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel “Sister Carrie” in an attempt to make sense of the strange and disturbing case of 13-year-old internet celebrity Kiki Ostrenga.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Schools Cowed by the Religious Right

By Robin Bates | Published: April 4, 2011

Holly Blumner had a vision. A member of the St. Mary’s theater department, Holly wanted to stage Susan Zeder’s Mother Hicks, a adolescent girl’s identity quest, and then take it into area schools. This post is the story about how rightwing groups have so terrified our schools that the vision died.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

Harry Potter, Teenage Hero’s Quest

By Robin Bates | Published: December 22, 2010

During Christmas week we get to imagine being children again so I’ve decided to write about student responses to Harry Potter.   Members of my British Fantasy Literature class could write essays on any work of fantasy as long as they applied the tools and perspectives we developed in the course. Michelle Steahl and Evan Rowe […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Regency Teens, Same Issues as Today

By Robin Bates | Published: October 5, 2010

Seldom have I enjoyed a course more than my current first year seminar on Jane Austen—specifically “Jane Austen and the Challenges of Being a Regency Teenager.” The title of the course isn’t historically accurate since young men and women in the early 19th century didn’t think of themselves as teenagers. Adolescence wasn’t as prolonged as […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

The Titanic and Adolescence, 2 Disasters

By Robin Bates | Published: September 17, 2010

Film Friday I have been recently writing about how Jane Austen’s 17-year-old heroine in Northanger Abbey uses gothic novels to negotiate the challenges of early 19th century life. Today I talk about how the greatest box office success in Hollywood history did the same for middle school girls in 1997. In fact, a major reason […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed