Foundation Stories
I like coming-of-age stories. I like them in films, I like them in novels, I even like them in songs. They talk to me.
But I have realised when I talk about the coming-of-age genre with some people, the term can be reductive. They think of Dawson’s Creek rather than Brideshead Revisited. Don’t get me wrong, I used to love Dawson’s Creek. But coming of age isn’t only about teenage years. It’s about becoming. About the moments that explain why we became who we are.
I’ve been wondering whether “foundation stories” is a better way to think about it. We’re used to nations having foundation stories. The British refer to tales of King Arthur and his Round Table and to our finest hour, standing alone against the Nazis under Winston Churchill. Although, we didn’t really stand alone, did we? There was an empire that stood alongside us. Perhaps that's the nature of foundation stories. They're less interested in everything that happened than in the version of events that explains who we believe ourselves to be.
The Italians have the revolutionary movements of 1848, the role of Garibaldi, and the partisan struggle against fascism. The French have their Revolution and the founding of the Republic. Liberty, Equality and Fraternity remain central to how France understands itself. Even the United States has its foundation story, though there are few of us on this side of the Atlantic who really understand what happened to the tea in Boston. The details differ, but the purpose is the same. Every nation has stories it returns to in order to explain itself.
And coming-of-age stories do the same thing, right? What is it about this character that explains who they are? Not just who they are in that moment, but how they became that person. Many of those moments happen as we grow into adulthood, which may be why the genre became associated with youth. But we never really stop becoming. Change is a universal human condition. And just as nations continue to revise the stories they tell about themselves, so do we. Perhaps coming of age isn't something we do once. It's something we keep doing. Maybe that's why we never stop returning to these stories, whether in Brideshead, Dawson's Creek, or a place we have not yet visited.