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.

»die Träume gehören zweifellos zur Wirklichkeit«

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-24
Author(s):  
Caroline Roeder
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Cultural Policies ◽  
Dream Narratives ◽  
Literary System

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Theodor Storms Kindermärchen Der kleine Häwelmann, von dem Autor 1849 für seinen Sohn Hans verfasst und 1850 veröffentlicht, ist in seiner moralisch-komischen Form ein exemplarisches Exponat der Kinderliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Gemäß der biedermeierlich gestimmten, belehrenden Funktion des Textes steht kindliche Allmachtsfantasie im Mittelpunkt des Geschehens. Die Haltung des ›Mehr-mehr‹ überschreitet indes die Grenzen der Moralerzählung. Entgegen der abschreckenden Funktion scheint vielmehr der kleine Häwelmann in der Verschränkung von Norm-Übertritt und Eskapismus ein ›modernes‹ Kind seiner Entstehungszeit zu sein und durchaus mit den Figuren des Struwwelpeters vergleichbar, die der Arzt und Kinderpsychiater Heinrich Hoffmann 1845 entworfen hat.   »Dreams Undoubtedly Belong to Reality«Dream Narratives About Childhood and for Children The call for ›more!‹ is the force driving the protagonist of Theodor Storm’s literary fairy tale Der kleine Häwelmann (1850) on his imaginary journey through the night. This dream narrative is a combination of an exciting exploration of transcending borders with a hint of the moral tale, and can be seen as a model for the configuration of the dream motif in children’s and young adult literature. Although the dream narrative has a prominent place there, its investigation has hitherto almost exclusively taken place within the con­text of fantasy; the didactic functions of the dream, however, and the motif of the dream journey have largely been neglected. This article looks at how post­1945 children’s dream narratives explores representations of childhood. Benno Pludra’s Lütt Matten und die weiße Muschel (1963), a children’s story from the German Democratic Republic (GDR), is analysed and situated within the context of its literary system. Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963) is next considered in relation to Pludra’s text in order to pro­vide a contrastive view to a key text from the Western literary system. Both texts were hugely innovative for their time and respective systems, both use Storm’s Häwelmann as an intertextual anchor, and both, as this analysis shows, reveal recognisable societal discourses about childhood and cultural policies for children.

Fröschen und Gurken

2018 ◽  
pp. 59-70
Author(s):  
Julia Boog-Kaminski
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Sexual Liberation ◽  
Nature And Culture ◽  
The Social ◽  
Children And Young Adults

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Kaum eine Zeit steht so sehr für die sexuelle Befreiung und Sprengung familialer Strukturen wie die 1968er (vgl. Herzog 2005). Kaum ein Märchen steht in der psychoanalytischen Deutung so sehr für den sexuellen Reifungsprozess und das Unabhängigwerden eines Kindes wie Der Froschkönig. Der vorliegende Artikel greift diese Verbindung auf, da gerade während der 68er-Bewegung verschiedene Wasser- und Amphibienfiguren in der Kinder- und Jugendliteratur (KJL) vorkommen, die stark an die Motive des Märchens erinnern. Frogs and CucumbersTransformed Men in Children’s and Young Adult Literature Since 1968 In psychoanalysis, the fairy tale The Frog Prince has attracted much interest as a narrative of sexual liberation. Placing this motif at the heart of Nöstlinger’s and Pressler’s ›antiauthoritarian classics,‹ this article puts forward a new reading of literature for children and young adults. Through the ambiguity of the frog figure – oscillating between nature and culture, consciousness and unconsciousness – these books chronicle, in their own manner, the social transformation associated with 1968. They portray the emancipation movement as a hurtful and paradoxical process instead of one that reproduces the myth of linear progress.

scholarly journals Work: An Occupational ABC by K. Hatanaka

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Feisst
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Short Description ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Full Page ◽  
Coffee Table ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University ◽  
First Time

Hatanaka, Kellen. Work: An Occupational ABC. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2014. Print.At first glance, you may look at this book and think it just like the myriad of other ABC books for young children and preschoolers, but you would be delightfully wrong!  Yes, of course, each letter from A to Z is represented and indeed each letter is accompanied by an image that characterizes the letter.  But that is where the similarities end. Toronto-based designer, illustrator and artist Kellen Hatanaka, who can now also call himself a first time author, has created a beautiful and unexpected piece of art for the youngest readers and it is as much a delight to read as it is to behold.  With creamy paper and softly-coloured images, created digitally after first creating ‘hand-drawn patterns and images’, it is reminiscent of a small person’s version of a coffee table book, if said coffee table were in a nursery.It starts out simple enough, with A for Aviator and a full page spread with a boldly-coloured A as well as mountain tops that echo the A’s shape.  The next page, however, alerts the reader to the fun in store – B is for Butcher, shown chasing after a group of raccoons who have absconded with a string of sausages. Yes, there are occupations like Grocer and Tailor but there are also the Ice Cream Vendor, K-9 Officer and the Wedding Singer! What’s wonderful to note are the many alternative occupations, some that you may have not have heard of, and that there is a nice mix of women, men, and cultures taking part. For the curious reader, there is a section of funny ‘Want Ads’ which provides a short description of the occupation.This would make a wonderful new baby gift and is an excellent addition to a home or public library.Highly recommended: 4 stars out of 4 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.

‘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 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.

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