Mythopoeic YA: Worlds of Possibility

This chapter discusses how mythopoeic YA, a speculative, ‘imaginary world’ fiction initially by women and still for adolescent girls, brings new worlds into being to actualize new modes of being. Drawing on the hero stories of traditional mythic narratives, mythopoeic YA engages and complicates the system of binary opposition at the heart of its source material by occupying spaces between oppositions, giving space to female-authors, and by foregrounding female-heroes, non-Western worlds, and relationships thereby offering alternative and inclusive models of being-hero. First emerging in the early-1980’s with the work of Tamora Pierce and Robin McKinley, Leigh Bardugo’sGrishaverse and Tomi Adeyemi's Orïsha offer excellent, contemporary examples.