Paul Hooper-Keeley invited to speak on Mod Fiction at Keele University’s ‘Teenage Kicks: The Representation of Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media’ Conference in July.

An Interdisciplinary Conference at Keele University

Confirmed speakers include: -

Professor Ken Gelder (author of Subcultures: Cultural Histories and Social Practices)

Professor Scott Wilson (author of Great Satan's Rage: American negativity and rap/metal in the age of super-capitalism)

 

With readings by Shane Blackman, Alan Fletcher, Don Letts and Alex Wheatle.

“The legendary UK DJ John Peel has the words 'Teenage Dreams so hard to beat' carved on his gravestone, the opening line of The Undertones' classic punk song 'Teenage Kicks'. Peel's love of the music, style, attitude and outlook of youth subcultures encapsulates a general and ongoing fascination for writers, filmmakers and critics alike. From Teddy Boys to Hoodies, subcultural groups have formed the backdrop or basis for a series of imaginative works.

This interdisciplinary and international conference aims to bring together researchers, academics and practitioners working in the field of subcultural studies, and in particular in their representation in fiction and film.

Much work has been done in sociology, criminology, cultural studies, cultural history and musicology to map and analyse subcultural identity and issues around youth, but comparatively little academic work has been done on the way in which youth subcultures have been represented in fiction and film.

Colin MacInnes’s Absolute Beginners set the trend for the subcultural novel in the 1950s, and by way of Nik Cohn’s I am Still the Greatest Says Johnny Angelo, Richard Allen’s 1970s Skinhead novels, Jonathan Coe’s The Dwarves of Death and Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia in the 80s and 90s, to Gautum Malkani’s Londonstani and novels by John King and Alex Wheatle in the 2000s, fiction has provided a rich source of articulation and engagement with subcultural positions and lifestyles.

This is in addition to the DIY fiction and fanzines that have accompanied subcultures down the years. On screen, iconic works such as The Wild Ones,  Performance, A Clockwork Orange, Blitzkrieg Bop, Quadrophenia, Punk: the Movie, Trainspotting, The Filth and the Fury, 8 Mile, This is England and Ill Manors have mapped both the experience of subcultural belonging and the various moral panics they have caused.”