Power, Beauty and Legitimacy of Adolescence
Power, Beauty and Legitimacy of Adolescence. Understanding the teenage years, from their complexity in reality to some fictional representations in Anglo-Saxon, French and Italian literature.
Based on thorough experience in teaching, pedagogy and parenting, this book is a helpful guide for parents and teachers who want to help teenagers, the best way they can, in becoming adults.
Susan Jane Broda Tamburi provides an instructive, yet very simple approach to a full understanding of the complex mechanisms of adolescence. The author also analyses some enlightening representations of teenagers in literature.
An Interview with Susan Jane Broda Tamburi
Why did you write this book?
I didn’t wake up one morning thinking, oh it would be nice to write a book, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I absolutely have to write a book about adolescence and how badly it is understood and dealt with. I felt a strong urge to do it.
What was your favourite part in writing this book?
My favourite part was finding passages in fiction that coincided so well with what I describe in the first part of the book. This constantly encouraged me as I was finding material that kept on backing up my theory on education and teenage/parent relationships.
What is your favourite drink to consume while writing?
Green tea because my only worry when sitting and writing for hours is that I am not working out therefore drinking green tea takes the guilt out of immobility.
Bad habits when writing?
I have no bad habits, no smoking, no drinking, just a little chocolate binging when writing in autumn and winter in Switzerland and mango sorbet binging in spring and summer when writing in California.
How would you entice people to read your book?
By telling them that it will change their life and their relationship with their teenagers as well as their outlook on youngsters as a whole.
Do you think you will write another book?
I already have. I made the adaptation of the book in Italian and have already started another one but I don’t want to reveal what it is about just yet.
If you could live in any fictional world, which would you choose and why?
I don’t need to live in any other fictional world because I dive into one whenever I open a book but I do have a preference for the atmosphere of 19th century American and English novels. There is a world I would like to get away from though and which seems fictional but is in fact reality and that is what I see on the news every day. It’s unbelievably terrifying but true.
If you could befriend any fictional character who would you choose and why?
Most certainly Jane Eyre. She would be the perfect friend for me. I love both her fragility and her strength, I love the fact that she spoke out for all the children that were mistreated in Victorian times, I love the fact that she managed to succeed in spite of the odds that were against her and to make her own living . I admire the way she made Rochester head over heels in love with her giving Blanche no chance whatsoever, thanks to her intelligence, wit and sensitivity. I love the fact that by pure coincidence I have the same name as her.
