Not Another Teen Movie. Evoluzione di un genere commerciale tra exploitation e convergenza

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of the teen moving genre during what Henry Jenkins called the modern era of “convergence culture”. The teen movie has always been one of the most prolific and profitable genre since the Fifties. But it went through several changes and adjustments, due to social and cultural changes and to market needs. Thus the portrayal of adolescent characters in teen movie has equally changed through the decades, but it has also maintained some specific characteristics and peculiar patterns. This because teen movie works largely by repeating systematically certain conventions and stereotypes in order to be instantly recognizable. In this sense, the character of Katniss Everdeen from “The Hunger Games” series seems to be particularly relevant because she fully embodies both the dominant cinematic trends of this period and the traditional representation of female adolescents on screen. In conclusion, I want to argue that Katniss could be seen as an emblem of teen movie genre, because she simultaneously both conform and resist to traditional stereotypes – as the genre itself.