Oct 22, 2026
"What's up with you, girl?" Narratives of Female Adolescence in Bildungsromane and Coming-of-Age Films
Poster on the occasion of the lecture “What’s Up with You, Girl?” Narratives of Female Adolescence in Bildungsromane and Coming-of-Age Films by Dr. Tanja Schwan (Leipzig) on November 11, 2026, at TU Dresden.
Guest Lecture by Dr. Tanja Schwan (University of Leipzig)
November 11, 2026, 1:00–2:30 p.m., HSZ/105
“What’s the Matter with You, Girl?” Narratives of Female Adolescence in Bildungsromane and Coming-of-Age Films
Based on the two educational concepts—which differ greatly depending on gender—in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Bildungsroman*Émile, or On Education*(1761) as well as contemporary alternative visions of girls’ education found in Françoise de Graffigny’s (Lettres d’une Péruvienne, 1747) and Choderlos de Laclos (De l’éducation des femmes, 1783)—which differ greatly depending on gender—will first be used to explore the unequal starting conditions for female and male teenagers in the process of becoming subjects and in adolescence, as well as the coming-of-age genre in literature and film. Subsequently, the lecture will use the feature film debuts *Corpo celeste* (2011) and *Kaj ti jedeklica/Little Trouble Girls* (2025) by the two young directors Alice Rohrwacher (Italy) and Urška Djukić (Slovenia)—exemplifies two female adolescent narratives from contemporary European auteur cinema, comparing them side by side.
