The rise of youth and the myth of James Dean

Before the mid-1940s young people had no specific culture of reference. After World War II a social phenomenon deeply marked the Western Culture: the process of Americanization, which made United States a role model for all the populations undergoing economic growth. Furthermore, America exported abroad several extremely significant symbols, such as chewing gum, blue jeans, the boogie woogie, and the scooter (Calabrese, 1988). These symbols became characteristic of a specific age group: the one between childhood and adulthood. Before that historical phase, adolescence did not enjoy a psychosocial moratorium. An icon of this developmental stage was the Hollywood actor James Dean, who became famous thanks to the motion picture Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Many decades later, Gustavo Pietropolli Charmet will define adolescents “Fragile and swaggering” (2009), just like James Dean was, creating a style that passed down from generation to generation so far. Analyzing James Dean is a way to understand adolescent reality: in fact, adolescence is a social construction (Mead, 1928). It was created for the specific purpose of feeding a new market. James Dean “invented” adolescent rebellion, irreverence toward the adult world, and the association between adolescence and deviance. This report aims to explain adolescent dynamics through the portrait of James Dean, whose image is crystallized over time as an Eternal Teenager (Puer Aeternus).