Year: 2008
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Wri tten as the second half of Canada's Century approached, Earle Birney's satiric verse (above) captures the purpose with which I began this study: to consider the development of a modern adolescence within the context of a nation that was suffering the "growing pains" of becoming a mature participant in the modern world order.Whether Canada had crossed that threshold by 1950 or, as the poet suggests, was still "frozen in adolescence," is a metaphorical rendering of the question of national identity that has so pervaded our history.Examining adolescence historically does much to dispel notions of what is "natural," "inevitable," and universal about this life stage and about generational relations.At the same time, history points to the relationship, replete with contradictions, between youth, modernity, and national identity.Adolescence became a modern phenomenon, increasingly distinct, increasingly identifiable as a special state of being-and becoming-during the years between the Great War and 1950.Yet it was never the universal experience that it was made out to be by experts and non-experts alike.Being young is not the same for all young people. 1 Commonalities in age, generation, and culture do ConclusionYouth's Dominion This is the case of a high school land, forever frozen in adolescence.
Author: Cynthia R. Comacchio
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4391862838