The Depiction of the Loser Teenager in the Film and Television Adaptations of John Green’s Young Adult Novels

Abstract

In the last few decades, the teen movie genre has left behind the genre of light comedies or farce comedies and deals with more substantial and fundamental issues concerning teenagers and young adults. In the literary universe of John Green, which has been the basis and source of inspiration for the corresponding film and television adaptations, the form of the good-natured and well-intentioned loser teenager dominates. The loser teenager watches with longing and anxiety the lives of his popular peers, longing to be given a chance to join their company. when this finally happens, he finds out that things are not always as they seem and the values that decorate his universe are not as meaningless as he initially thought. The heroes in Green's books possess culture, dreams and ambitions, and an already complete personal universe that most of their popular peers lack, lost in the abyss of adolescence, its changes, and dilemmas. their depiction in the mass entertainment media of film and television reflects also social changes in teen and school culture, s well as the broadening of personal outlooks and expectations of teenagers themselves. in the recent article, we are going to analyse the type of loser geek/nerd teenager hero in the film and television adaptations of his young adult novel Paper Towns (2015) and Looking for Alaska (2019).