Understanding adolescents’ imaginary: a reflection through cross-media narratives for adolescents

Abstract

The article proposes a reflection on the way in which stories contribute to forming the adolescents' imaginary: narrative imagery, however fictitious it may be, has such an emblematic character that it offers adolescents a series of models on which to support, recognize and compare each other.

Based on the data from a questionnaire administered to 100 students in the provinces of Padua and Vicenza on the evolution of the use of free time during and after the pandemic, two most widespread examples were identified: the novel The Song of Achilles and the television series “Sex Education”. These stories seem to give shape to the unresolved projections of puberty through an openness to the sexual question in the key of gender fluidity, which turns out to be an essential element of the internal and external reality sought by today's young people.

The contribution continues with pedagogical reflections with a view to replicability of the experience: through the narratives the key theme of change and gender identity in adolescents can be addressed, through the analysis of cross-media expressive forms congenial to this age group. These educational paths are essential to a school that is a place of openness, dialogue and inclusion.