CCWW Writing Transnational Girlhoods across Literature, Media and Society (1)

Girlhood from Society to the Screen

Following the international success of Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend tetralogy (2011–2014) and the HBO series inspired by it, attention has intensified in the new media on the topic of girlhood and coming-of-age stories. At the same time, the #metoo campaign introduced aspects of feminist discourse into the mainstream, with girls becoming especially sensitised to the issues raised. This seminar series offers a fresh focus on girlhood and asks how we might understand it today.

In recent years we have observed a significant shift in representations of girlhood compared to similar content in the 1990s and early 2000s. In the last few years, the OTT (Over the Top Television) services, in particular Netflix, have released many TV series which show teens for whom sex, sexuality, and gender are not taboo subjects. This trend has been promptly appropriated by Italian TV networks and the Italian cinema industry. This paper presents the first insights of the research project, ‘A Girls' Eye-View: Girlhood on the Italian Screen since the 1950s’ funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in the UK.

Introduction: Olga Campofreda (UCL): 'What a Girl Wants: Framing Girlhood in Historical Perspective'
Danielle Hipkins (Exeter) and Romana Andò (Sapienza University, Rome): A Girl's Eye-View. Exploring Media Representations of of Girlhood through the Lens of Italian Female Adolescence'

Event date: Thursday, 6 October 2022