Copyright by Michael David Rennett 2017 The Dissertation Committee for Michael David Rennett certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: HOW GROWN-UPS ARE BORN: THE EMERGING-ADULT GENRE AND AMERICAN FILM AND TELEVISION Committee: Thomas Schatz, Co-Supervisor Janet Staiger, Co-Supervisor Mary Celeste Kearney Mary Beltran Julia Mickenberg HOW GROWN-UPS ARE BORN: THE EMERGING-ADULT GENRE AND AMERICAN FILM AND TELEVISION by Michael David Rennett Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2017 Acknowledgements The idea for my dissertation started to coalesce in 2006 and developed bit-by-bit over the last eleven years. I am truly thankful for all the personal and professional support I received throughout this time to pursue my project. First, I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee – Janet Staiger, Tom Schatz, Mary Kearney, Mary Beltrán, and Julia Mickenberg – for their hard work and insightful feedback. Janet Staiger has been instrumental in developing this project since I arrived at the University of Texas in 2011. Like any great mentor, Janet would know when I needed to meet and talk through my idea, and would know when I needed my space to write and work through each part on my own. In our meetings, Janet would facilitate deep conversations about the core issues surrounding my project and keep me focused on the media’s representations of emerging-adults. She also challenged many parts which I thought seemed obvious, allowing me to always dig deeper into each element to provide the clearest possible analysis. I am privileged to have worked with her in this capacity and honored to call her a mentor. Tom Schatz has also been a guiding light during my time at Texas. He is a fantastic editor for my work and his comments have helped shape the dissertation for the better. I have also had to privilege to work with him on his Narrative Strategies course which helped guide and improve my teaching. Mary Kearney helped formalize my interest in identity politics and feminism over the past six years. She provided valuable insights into my work and constantly pushed me to dig deeper into the topics. She is not only a meticulous scholar who pushed me to do my best research, but she constantly kept a positive attitude which helped make the work seem like anything but that. I am fortunate to have worked with her while she was at the University of Texas and I am iv ecstatic to call her a friend and a mentor. Mary Beltrán provided a combination of positivity and wise commentary and I appreciate everything that she has given to my dissertation and to the RTF department in general. Julia Mickenberg has also been a pleasure to have on my committee. She has an immense knowledge about childhood and adolescent studies and her influence helped me situate my work within American cultural studies rather than just media studies. I am truly grateful for her contributions and her friendship. It also would have been impossible to complete my dissertation without the emotional and intellectual support of my peers at the University of Texas. In particular, I have to give extra special thanks to Laura Felschow, Ben Kruger-Robbins, Alfred Martin, Mike O’Brien, Morgan O’Brien, Jennifer Reinwald, and Lesley Willard. They all knew when I needed to either talk about my dissertation at “work parties” or when I need to take a break from work and relax. I would not have been able to finish without their help and I am grateful to them all. I must also thank wonderful friends and colleagues like Nick Bestor, Kayti Lausch, Claire Lee, Annie Major, Taylor Cole Miller, William Moner, Colleen Montgomery, Paul Monticone, Lucia Palmer, Jackie Pinkowitz, Christy Savage, Colin Tait, Lauren Weinzimmer, and Kyle Wrather for their support over the years. I am also appreciative of the many people outside of the University of Texas who provided me with encouragement and support. I cannot thank Scott Balcerzak, Chris Becker, Ron Becker, Michael DeAngelis, Ken Feil, Amanda Ann Klein, Drew Morton, Timothy Shary, and Kristen Warner enough for everything that they have done to help me. I have also had the privilege to be a graduate student representative for the Comedy and Humor Studies SIG within SCMS and I am grateful to work alongside wonderful colleagues like Annie Berke, Maggie Hennefeld, and Phil Scepanski. Finally, my family deserves my unending thanks for all their support and encouragement. Ever since I was born, my mother has made me believe that I could v accomplish anything to which I set my mind. Finishing this dissertation and earning my doctorate is the result of her infinite confidence in me. I owe her and my sister everything for their love, support, and their combined strength. My girlfriend Katherine has also been my best friend and my rock ever since we met. I cannot thank her enough for being an understanding, encouraging, and loving partner who has stood by me through many personal and professional highs and lows. I would not have been able to get across the finish line without her help and I’m lucky to be able to share this accomplishment with her. vi How Grown-Ups Are Born: The Emerging-Adult Genre and American Film and Television Michael David Rennett, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2017 Co-Supervisors: Thomas Schatz and Janet Staiger This dissertation explores the representation of emerging adulthood in both films and television series. Recent research in the fields of sociology and psychology has advocated the development of a new life stage for twenty- and thirtysomethings that is in between adolescence and adulthood. During this age range, young Americans receive education and training for the jobs that will last the rest of their adult work lives and explore difference possibilities in love, work, education, and worldviews. While sociological research currently exists on the actual lives of emerging adults, little work has been done on its representation in the media. This dissertation aims to fill this gap in the discourse by analyzing emerging adulthood as its own genre that represents this new life stage in both films and television programs. While I use Jeffrey Jensen Arnett’s sociological definitions of emerging adulthood to initiate my study, I analyze fictional narratives to illuminate what I have discovered to be at least 300 texts produced since the 1960s that circle around characters and plot points about transitioning into adulthood. To analyze the emerging-adult genre, I utilize the five different ways in which aspects of a person’s identity have been discussed as film and vii television genres: character representations; descriptions of semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic elements; historical periods; audience demographics; and authorship. Chapter One focuses on how the sociocultural elements represented in emerging adulthood (love and emotional partnerships, securing financial and residential independence, and finding a financially stable and personally rewarding career) are represented in media texts. Chapters Two and Three are dedicated to analyzing emerging-adult narratives, but Chapter Two focuses on film while Chapter Three focuses on television. I divide the narrative structure into two chapters due to the industrial and narrational effects upon each form of storytelling. Chapter Four concentrates on the historical roots of and changes in the emerging-adult genre to address the pragmatic approach found in Rick Altman’s genre theory. For this chapter, I divide this genre into three generation-based periods: Baby Boomers, Generation-X, and Millennials. The conclusion summarizes my findings and addresses areas of potential media studies research for this genre. viii Table of Contents Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Representing Growing Up in the American Media ........................................5 The Creation of the Notion of "Emerging Adulthood" in America ................7 Identity Genres ..............................................................................................16 Emerging Adulthood as Identity Genre ........................................................23 Medium Specificity and Genre Analysis ......................................................32 Methodology and Chapter Outlines ..............................................................36 Chapter 1: Post-Graduate Un(der)employed Slackers: A Taxonomy of Emerging- Adult Representations ...................................................................................52 Education and Work .....................................................................................60 Play or Work .................................................................................................72 Slackers ................................................................................................75 Partiers .................................................................................................84 Shoppers and Sports Fans ....................................................................93 Emerging-Adult Residency .........................................................................102 Romance, Love, and Marriage ....................................................................111 Conclusion ..................................................................................................126