This is the first collection of its kind to explore one of the most widely recognized series in Canadian television history. Sixteen essays bring together scholars and fans of Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High and Degrassi: The Next Generation to examine the pivotal role the series has had in shaping Canadian youth identity over the past twenty-five years. In the first two sections, "Egrassi and Youth Cultures" and "Building Identity on Degrassi," contributors look into topics ranging from how technology and media have shaped character identity and viewer devotion, to the critical contemporary issues of the AIDS crisis among young adults. The third section "Web Sites, Fan Clubs Reminiscences," is a celebration of Degrassi fandom. In her Afterword, Linda Schuyler comments on the twenty-five years it has taken to build the remarkable phenomenon called Degrassi and why it deserves to be both celebrated and critiqued for its unique place in television and youth cultures.

 

This book was recognised in the Popular Culture category by the Indiefab Award.

There are 320 pages in this book. This book was published 2005 by Sumach Press .

Michele Byers is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Geoff Pevere has been a broadcaster, programmer, author, and critic for more than thirty years. He was the first program coordinator of the Toronto International Film Festival's Perspective Canada program. For many years he was the film critic for the Toronto Star, where he now writes about books. He is the co-author (with Greig Dymond) of Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey and author of Team Spirit: A Field Guide to Roots Culture .

This book has the following chapters: Introduction: Creating a Classic in Television History; Revisiting Teenage Truths: Simonetti's Questions of National Identity and Culture Ten Years Later; Sometimes a Fantasy: Degrassi and Teenage Entertainment in America; Degrassi Then and Now: Teens, Authenticity and the Media; Changing Faces: What Happened When Degrassi Switched to CTV; The Next Generation Goes Digital: Technology, the Medium and the Message; Online Fan Fiction: Is Self-expression Collaboration or Resistance?; Only in Canada, You Say?: The Dynamics of Identity on Degrassi Junior High; "That White Girl from That Show": Race and Ethnicity within Canadian Youth Cultures; Have Times Changed?: Girl Power and Third-Wave Feminism on Degrassi; Getting It Wrong and Right: Representing AIDS on Beverly Hills 90210 and Degrassi High; Swamp Sex Robots: Narratives of Male Pubescence and Viewer (Mis)Identification; "Everybody Wants Something": Drugs, Sex and Money in Canadian and American Teen Programming; Degrassi. ca: Building a Fan Community Online; The Queen's University Degrassi Club; I Wasn't Born in the South, but I Got Here as Quickly as I Could; True to My School: An American's Love Affair with Degrassi; Cast List and Partial Episode Guide.