CCWW Writing Transnational Girlhoods across Literature, Media and Society (2)

Girlhood from History 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.

Amid the popularity of representations of Black girls in U.S. films in recent years, Daley explores Girlhood (2014), The Fits (2015), The Hate U Give (2018), and See You Yesterday (2019) in order to chart how these movies have helped shape our cultural understanding of what it means to be young, Black, and female. Daley pinpoints how these films, alongside movie posters, a book cover, and casting and music choices, demonstrate how Black girls become raged upon by their communities, experience emotional rage as an affective response to violence and trauma, and are promoted as all-the-rage icons, and asserts that Black girls do not come of age but rather come of (r)age.

Lashon Daley (San Diego State University): 'Black/Girlhood Imagery'

Event date: Thursday, 13 October 2022