The Adolescent Quest

Title
The Adolescent Quest
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Shaw, Janice
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1018-4491
Email: jshaw20@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jshaw20
Editor
Editor(s): Nadine Faraghaly and Eden Leone
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
McFarland & Company, Inc
Place of publication
Jefferson, United States of America
Edition
1
UNE publication id
une:21146
Abstract
This essay explores how 'The Big Bang Theory' situates the traditional notion of the quest in a millennial context. The quest as a search for an unattainable and objectified patroness is reinscribed by the chivalrous knights being nerds, or characters who present a renegotiated contemporary image of adulthood and masculinity, and the patroness being an equally problematized "kidult" female. In this way, 'The Big Bang Theory' is one of a number of contemporary television programs and films that challenges the notion of adulthood by interrogating the current social trend of young adults adopting "practices and attitudes associated with adolescence" (Blatterer 777). The television series depicts a set of young adults who, in confounding the boundaries between adolescence and adulthood, conform to the terms "kidults" and "adultescents" as used in contemporary media. In the process the series examines a model of masculinity in television and film that generates stereotypes of gendered behavior. The Big Bang Theory contributes to a popular fictional genre that endorses conformity while it exploits it, consistent with Rebecca Feasey's claims about masculinity as it is constructed by popular television, that "contemporary programming forms a consensus as it investigates, negotiates and challenges the power, authority and patriarchal control of the hegemonic male" (Masculinity 4).
Link
Citation
The Sexy Science of 'The Big Bang Theory': Essays on Gender in the Series, p. 72-87
ISBN
9780786476411
9781476619484
Start page
72
End page
87

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