‘Live. And remember’: History, memory and storytelling in young adult holocaust fiction

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-174
Author(s):  
Vandana Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Holocaust Literature ◽  
Holocaust Education ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Human Rights Abuse

Young adult fiction has emerged as a crucial pedagogical tool for Holocaust education. According to scholars and writers, it promotes empathy and also encourages the readers to become a part of the process of remembering. However, this field of storytelling also grapples with the dilemma of traumatic subject matter and its suitability for young readers. The humanist conventions of young adult fiction are often in conflict with the bleak and horrifying core of Holocaust literature. Young adult novelists have tried to deal with these problematic aspects by using multiple narrative strategies to integrate the memories of genocide and human rights abuse with the project of growth and socialisation that lies at the heart of young adult literature. This paper examines the narrative strategies that make young adult fiction an apt bearer and preserver of the traumatic past. Specifically, these strategies involve fantastical modes of storytelling, liminality and witness testimonies told to the second- and third-generation listeners. These strategies modify the humanist resolution of young adult narratives by integrating growth with collective responsibility.

scholarly journals The Long, Long Line by T. Ohmura

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Feisst
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Long Line ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The University

Ohmura, Tomoko. The Long, Long Line. Toronto, ON: OwlKids Books, 2013. Print."Thank you for waiting, and welcome aboard! One at a time, please!" mentions the bird, who is the ride guide on this mysterious ride for which 50 different animals have patiently lined up. As they wait, the bird flies amongst them, offering reassuring words as they guess as to what they may be in line for and play word games to pass the time.  The anticipation builds, and finally they start boarding the ride, which turns out to be a very large whale on which the animals ride while the whale performs somersaults, dives and sprays. Children will be delighted by all 50 animals represented on the large gatefold spread in the center of the book, from the smallest frog to the largest elephant.Children will love the small details such as the tail of the next animal in line ‘peeking’ around the corner of the page and the size of the animals increasing as they get closer to the ride giving perspective of size. A list of all 50 animals is included at the back for easy reference when young readers get stumped by a species. While this is indeed a picture book aimed at young children it is no quick read – children will want to hear every word of the animals’ conversations as they wait and will want to count as they go, and likely once all the animals are aboard the whale they will want to confirm there are indeed 50 animals present, perhaps multiple times.The colourful illustrations by the author are cute and engaging and show a wide range of expressions and interplay between the animals.  The language felt slightly unnatural but this may be a result of this edition being a translation of the original Japanese work Nanno Gyoretsu? A fun book for public and elementary schools as well as a nice addition to science or math based storytime in lower elementary grades.The Long, Long Line was selected as one of the best children’s books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews.Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Debbie FeisstDebbie is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta.  When not renovating, she enjoys travel, fitness and young adult fiction.

Child

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Self Similar ◽  
To Come

In the conclusion of The Child to Come, the book asks, ‘What happens when the life figured by the child--innocent, self-similar human life at home on a homely Earth--no longer has the strength to hold back the vitality that animates it?’ This chapter looks at two kinds of texts that consider this question: Anthropocene cinema and Young Adult Fiction. By focusing on the role of human action, the Anthropocene obscures a far more threatening reality: the collapse of the regulative. In relation, both children’s literature and young adult literature grow out of and as disciplinary apparatuses trained on that fraught transit between the presumptive difference of those still in their minority and the socially necessary sameness that is inscribed into fully attained adulthood.

scholarly journals Considering All (Non) Living Things: A Biocentric Orientation in Blair Richmond’s The Lithia Trilogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Ida Farida ◽  
Yudi Permadi ◽  
Trisha Adelia ◽  
Nolly Liviani
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
The Other ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Gaia Hypothesis ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Living Things ◽  
The Right

This article elucidates the perspective of The Lithia Trilogy, written by Blair Richmond, towards environment. This research is executed based on ecocriticism, a literary approach which focuses on the exploration of environmental issues in literary works. The theory is taken from Laurence Buell on the meaning of ecocriticism. From the analysis of the structure of the novels, it is found that the trilogy presents the idea of biocentrism, an assumption that the earth and all of the living things on it have the right to fulfill their needs without any molestation from the other, especially from humans. Biocentrism is the opposing concept of Anthropocentrism, both of which are studied in environmental ethics. Two issues of conflicts are presented in this trilogy: herbivores versus omnivores and environ-mentalists versus capitalists. The result of the research reveals that the novels suggest not to eat animals to save fauna and socialize Gaia hypothesis to save all living and non-living things on the earth. As one work of young adult literature, this trilogy explicitly teaches those suggestions to young readers.

scholarly journals The ANZAC Tribulations at Gallipoli in Recent Australian Children’s Literature

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-96
Author(s):  
Hervé Cantero
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Ritual Practices

Generations of Australian children have been presented with iconic figures and values associated with the events of 1915 at Gallipoli and involved in the ritual practices of remembrance exemplified by Anzac Day ceremonies throughout a corpus of children’s literature which ranges from picture books for pre-schoolers to young adult fiction. This paper aims to broadly identify the narrative strategies at work in a selection of recent stories of brave animals helping the Aussie boys under fire or paeans to the duty of personal and communal remembrance and to examine them in a larger context of national self-representation.

scholarly journals Uppståndna igen ifrån de döda: Kristna motiv i nyare skandinavisk barnlitteratur

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-119
Author(s):  
Björn Sundmark
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
General Population ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Religious Issues ◽  
Aesthetic Form ◽  
Christian Practices ◽  
Confessional Discourse

The chapter discusses representations of Christian practices, religious experiences and biblical motifs in recent Scandinavian children’s and young adult literature. It is claimed that after an almost one hundred-year hiatus, during which overt Christian symbols, stories and experiences have been absent from mainstream children’s publishing, we are now witnessing a return of such religious expressions in fictional and aesthetic form. The books under scrutiny are from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and include critically acclaimed picture books as well as young adult fiction and crossover literature. It is argued that it is once again possible to bring up Christian motifs and stories in our post-secular societies, not because of increased faith in the general population, but because religious issues to a greater degree have become part of contemporary non-confessional discourse.

Young adult literature in translation: The state of research

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
Kaja Makowska
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
Code Switching ◽  
First Century ◽  
Circulation Rate ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
State Of Research ◽  
Characteristic Style ◽  
Youth Language

The aim of the article is to examine the concept of young adult literature, provide its historical timeframe, identify its key components, and, finally, discuss young adult literature in translation by presenting the state of research on the topic. After analysing the concept of a young adult, the article moves on to provide a brief summary of adolescent fiction’s history, concluding that J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders largely contributed to the recognition of the genre. The paper mentions characteristic style choices employed by the authors of young adult fiction, the most prominent being the blend of registers or ‘code-switching’ between teen and adult speech, as acknowledged by Penelope Eckert and Chuck Wendig. Code-switching constitutes one of the main translation problems and is discussed at large in two compelling papers on the topic of young adult literature translation, namely Translating Young Adult Literature. The High Circulation Rate of Youth Language and Other Related Translation Problems in “The Catcher in the Rye” and “The Outsiders” by Saskia Tempert and Translating Young Adult Literature: Problems and Strategies. John Green`s “An Abundance of Katherines” by Loana Griguta. Both dissertations analyse the language of adolescent novels (in the twentieth and the twenty first century) and devise a list of strategies dedicated to adequately rendering English source versions into Dutch and Romanian, respectively. These writings indicate a growing interest in the field of young adult literature translation. The article expresses the hope that more scholars will elaborate on the topic.

Beyond the Blockbusters

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Hunger Games ◽  
Limited Perspective ◽  
The Many

While the critical and popular attention afforded to twenty-first century young adult literature has exponentially increased in recent years, the texts selected for discussion in both classrooms and scholarship has remained static and small. Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hate U Give dominate conversations among scholars and critics—but they are far from the only texts in need of analysis. Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction offers a necessary remedy to this limited perspective by bringing together a series of essays about the many subgenres, themes, and character types that have been overlooked and under-discussed until now. The collection tackles a diverse range of subjects—modern updates to the marriage plot; fairy tale retellings in dystopian settings; stories of extrajudicial police killings and racial justice—but is united by a commitment to exploring the large-scale generic and theoretical structures at work in each set of texts. As a collection, Beyond the Blockbusters is an exciting glimpse of a field that continues to grow and change even as it explodes with popularity, and would make an excellent addition to the library of any scholar, instructor, or reader of young adult literature.

scholarly journals Mercy Thompson de Patricia Briggs – une série pour les jeunes féministes ?

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Loska
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Book Market ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Considerable Potential ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Urban Fantasy

Nowadays, young adult literature is becoming increasingly popular and occupies an important place in the book market. Among the different genres offered to young readers, urban fantasy has a considerable potential. The aim of the present study is to examine if Patricia Briggs’ series about the adventures of Mercy Thompson can be considered as a literary work for young feminists. The analysis of the protagonist (an urban hunter and a shapeshifter) and some events in her life (relationship with her partner and rape) demonstrates the feminist aspect of the series.

Geschichte(n) zwischen Fakt und Fiktion

2019 ◽  
pp. 63-77
Author(s):  
Agnes Bidmon
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Recent Trend ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Literary Production ◽  
Spatial Access ◽  
Authentic Material ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Digital World

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Lange Zeit herrschte im Forschungsdiskurs die Meinung vor, dass Kinder- und Jugendliteratur »aus sich selbst heraus verständlich sei und keiner literaturwissenschaftlichen Interpretationskunst bedürfe« (Gansel / Korte 2009, S. 7). Aus diesem Grund standen Fragen nach der Machart der Texte im Verhältnis zu Fragen nach ihren »Inhalte[n], Themen, pädagogische[n] Strategien und so genannte[n] ›Botschaften‹« (ebd.) häufig im Hintergrund. Diese Vorstellung hat sich mittlerweile jedoch gewandelt, was nicht zuletzt auf eine grundlegende Veränderung in der literarischen Landschaft seit Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts zurückzuführen ist. Historical Tales between Fact and FictionForms and Functions of Docufictional Narration in the Young Adult Novels Edelweißpiraten and Train Kids by Dirk ReinhardtThis article focusses on a recent trend in contemporary literature: docufictional storytelling. It argues, in a first step, that this trend can be understood as a reflected way of dealing with the concept of reality in a highly virtual and digital world. Docufictional novels rely on documentary as well as fictional strategies, and interweave them via intramedial, intermedial and transmedial approaches. By doing so, the texts reconstruct a real reality to which their readers have no direct temporal or spatial access. At the same time, they show that reality can be only a construction, even if authentic material is included. Providing access to reality can be seen as one of the main goals in the literary production addressing young readers. In a second step, this article analyses contemporary German young adult literature and examines the forms and functions of docufictional storytelling, which can be found in those texts. It focusses especially on two novels by Dirk Reinhardt, Edelweißpiraten (2012) and Train Kids (2015), and concludes that this mode of narration between entertainment and information offers young readers the opportunity to develop their media and discourse competencies.

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