Discourse on Degrassi —Suzanne Rintoul and Quintin Zachary Hewlett
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Negotiating Canadian Culture Through Youth Television: Discourse on Degrassi —Suzanne Rintoul and Quintin Zachary Hewlett Byers, Michele, ed. Growing Up Degrassi: Television, Lorimer, 2006. 153 pp. $9.95 pb. ISBN 1-55028- Identity and Youth Cultures. Toronto: Sumach, 2005. 924-1. Print. 317 pp. $28.95 pb. ISBN 1-894549-48-1. Print. Nielsen, Susin. Snake. Degrassi Junior High. Halifax: Castellarin, Loretta, and Ken Roberts. Spike. Degrassi Lorimer, 2006. 183 pp. $9.95 pb. ISBN 1-55028- Junior High. Halifax: Lorimer, 2006. 106 pp. $9.95 926-8. Print. pb. ISBN 1-55028-925-X. Print. Torres, J. Suddenly Last Summer. Illus. Ramón Pérez. Dunphy, Catherine. Caitlin. Degrassi Junior High. Degrassi The Next Generation Extra Credit 2. Bolton, Halifax: Lorimer, 2006. 145 pp. $9.95 pb. ISBN 1- ON: Fenn, 2006. N. pag. $12.95 pb. ISBN 1-55168- 55028-923-3. Print. 320-2. Print. Ellis, Kathryn. Degrassi: Generations. Bolton, ON: Torres, J. Turning Japanese. Illus. Ed Northcott. Degrassi Fenn, 2005. 192 pp. $22.95 pb. ISBN 1-55168-278- The Next Generation Extra Credit 1. Bolton, ON: 8. Print. Fenn, 2006. N. pag. $12.95 pb. ISBN 1-55168- - - -. Joey Jeremiah. Degrassi Junior High. Halifax: 318-0. Print. Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 1.1 (2009) 125 Known from its inception as a television franchise that targets young people while dealing with the complex issues facing them in a mature and realistic fashion, Degrassi is, perhaps, one of the most internationally recognized aspects of Canadian popular culture. Following the relative success of their CBC series Kids of Degrassi Street (1979–1985), Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler created what would, over the next twenty years, become an increasingly popular franchise and an unprecedented international hit for Canadian television. Degrassi Junior High (1987–1989), Degrassi High (1989–1991), . conversations and the made-for-TV movie School’s Out! (1992) targeted a niche market consisting mostly of Canadian youth by charting the lives of about the series tend a large group of Toronto teens and pre-teens. By having its actors go to refl ect the idea that into the real world to discuss real problems facing teens, Degrassi Canadian culture off ers Talks (1992)—a six-episode documentary series that provoked the representations of publication of book tie-ins and educational reference materials— youth and childhood capitalized on the unusual combination of popularity and educational value espoused by the series. In 2001, CTV aired the fi rst episode of that are somehow more Degrassi: The Next Generation. Still set and fi lmed in Toronto, the authentic than, say, show now focuses on the lives of a new group of students, including American television. the daughter of one of the major characters from the original. Like its predecessors, the new show is a hit in Canada and has been steadily gaining popularity in other countries such as the United States and Australia. Amid the critical discourse pertaining to Degrassi, one encounters questions about television studies, problems facing young people, global youth culture, and nostalgia. But the topic perhaps most often broached by Degrassi scholars and fans is the series’ “Canadianness.” To be more precise, conversations about the series tend to refl ect the idea that Canadian culture offers representations of youth and 126 Suzanne Rintoul and Quintin Zachary Hewlett Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 1.1 (2009) childhood that are somehow more authentic than, say, of representation problematically renders girls more American television.1 In this review essay, we assess dependent on adult intervention than boys. The later the prevalence of this type of rhetoric by reviewing books, however, largely avoid stereotypical depictions Degrassi: Generations, Kathryn Ellis’s catalogue of the of gender as they emphasize the independent problem- entire televised franchise, and a collection of essays solving skills demonstrated by the female protagonists. edited by Michele Byers called Growing up Degrassi: These graphic novels emphasize the constructed nature Television, Identity, and Youth Cultures. These non- of the “reality” they produce—and, by extension, the fi ctional texts clearly emphasize distinctions between “reality” that the Degrassi franchise produces—and American and Canadian approaches to the “realistic” thus complicate critical assertions regarding the show’s representation of childhood and adolescence. We realism. then move on to test the assumptions made in these books by looking at four re-released novelizations The Authenticity of Canadian Television of episodes from what critics and fans tend to dub Michele Byers’s edited collection Growing “Degrassi Classic,” as well as two graphic novels Up Degrassi contains several claims for the adapted from storylines found in Degrassi: The Next uniquely realistic nature of Canadian television but Generation. None of the fi ctional texts make overt rarely explores the critical pitfalls of this type of claims for the authenticity of Canadian representations argumentation. This collection of essays is divided of childhood or youth, although they do assume into three sections: “Degrassi and ‘Youth Cultures,’” an audience that is willing to accept Canada as the “Building Identity on Degrassi,” and “Web Sites, Fan setting for a number of events to which middle-class Clubs, and Reminiscences.” The last section differs (and ostensibly “Westernized”) children and teens from the fi rst two insofar as it does not present itself as can relate. Generally speaking, the “Canadianness” a scholarly contribution to academic discourse about of the books is rather inconspicuous. What is Degrassi so much as a collection of anecdotes and conspicuous about these texts, though, are the shifts personal histories of the article writers’ experiences in how the classic adaptations and the Degrassi: The with the Degrassi franchise: Mark Aaron Polger’s Next Generation graphic novels approach the issue discussion of the development of Degrassi’s unoffi cial of problem solving for girls and boys. In the earlier online life; Mark Janson’s memory of forming the novelizations, the “authentic” reality that many Queen’s University Degrassi Club; and Sean Bilichka’s critics suggest bespeaks a uniquely Canadian mode and Brian C. Jones’s short essays on their take, as Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 1.1 (2009) Suzanne Rintoul and Quintin Zachary Hewlett 127 Americans, on Degrassi. This section of the book is a Pevere avoids attributing a sense of national specifi city light and fun read that stands out from the more critical by suggesting that interpreting Degrassi as “a Canadian essays. Considering the relative paucity of signifi cant cultural artefact” (12) is simply one among a number critical developments in studying Degrassi, however, of perspectives. Alternately, Mary Jane Miller’s such marginalia might discourage a reader who has introduction ensures that readers understand this come to this book in search of a more signifi cant positive and valuable authentic television experience contribution to the fi eld. Overall, though, Growing as something that is uniquely Canadian. In her essay, Up Degrassi aims to distinguish between Degrassi Miller charts the development of Canadian family- Classic and Degrassi: The Next Generation as well as oriented television from Sunshine Sketches to Degrassi between Canadian and American culture. As such, it to establish some of the major questions of the text: faces several problems, particularly in its occasional how has Canadian television changed over the last constructions of Canadian culture as uniquely capable fi fty years? How do young people effect the production of presenting an accurate portrayal of childhood and of culture, and vice versa? How has technology adolescence. infl uenced shifts in youth entertainment? How does Geoffrey Pevere’s preface makes the assumptions Degrassi negotiate identity? How does it negotiate of the book clear: Degrassi “offers a representation Canadian identity? How does it differ from American of teenage life that stands in stark contrast to the television and why? These are good questions vast majority of such representations in the media for the simple reason that much of the discourse mainstream, and that contrast is valuable and positive” surrounding the series involves the demarcation of (12). For Pevere, this representation is positive because identity within the Degrassi narratives as uniquely of its authenticity: Canadian. Throughout the book, the approaches to answering these questions are often insightful, but A recurring experience recounted throughout these other questions that are not answered by this volume essays involves someone getting hooked, usually need to be addressed in order to construct a more despite themselves, on one of the Degrassi series complete understanding of “Canadianness.” How because they encountered something—a story, does one constitute the target of youth culture? What a character, a situation—that echoed their own is the impact of defi ning national identity through personal experience. A moment when the screen this (undefi ned) youth? What does it mean that we caught the refl ection of the viewer. (12) are continuing to defi ne Canadian culture against 128 Suzanne Rintoul and Quintin Zachary Hewlett Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures 1.1 (2009) American culture? What are the implications of suggesting that Degrassi is both uniquely Canadian (i.e. specifi cally not American) and universally appealing? Moreover, does Degrassi get