Fleur Gabriel: Deconstructing Youth: Youth Discourses at the Limits of Sense

Excerpt

Deconstructing Youth, by Fleur Gabriel, analyzes the nature of youth in Western cultural contexts. By examining youth through various discourses, the author challenges society’s current assumptions about adolescents in attempts to make the period of adolescence more meaningful. Gabriel strives to offer ways of understanding youth in a manner that does not position adolescents as a social problem. By doing so, this book speaks to a variety of audiences and makes this subject approachable and intriguing. Gabriel’s neutral approach toward each subject allows for a thorough discussion in each chapter, and it encourages the reader to have an open mind when conceptualizing youth. This method was successful in persuading the reader to consider alternative ways of approaching the question of youth. …