Bite Me: The Allure of Vampires and Dark Magic in Chicana Young Adult Literature

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-73
Author(s):  
Christi Cook
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Peaceful Coexistence ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
Alternate Model ◽  
Adolescent Experience

The intersectionality of the protagonists’ marked hybrid status as teenage girls, Chicanas, and supernatural beings, two of which are obviously realistic marginalized depictions while one is a fantasy, creates an interesting space within which to explore hybridity. This chapter argues that there is a limit to Anzaldúan hybridity as the exemplar for the YA reader and character because of its overly idealistic portrayal of the New Mestiza, which doesn’t work when applied to a teenaged coming-of-age that involves transitioning painfully and often amongst their borderlands identities in ways that do not reflect peaceful coexistence amongst hybrid influences. This chapter exposes an alternate model for adolescent Chicana hybridity that takes into account the adolescent experience.

scholarly journals Voice and Silence in Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. BB102-BB118
Author(s):  
Helma Van Lierop-Debrauwer
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Voice And Silence

In 2014, the American writer Jacqueline Woodson published Brown Girl Dreaming, the story of her childhood in free verse, which was classified as young adult literature. Most US reviewers characterized and appreciated the book both as a human rights narrative of a young brown girl’s coming of age against the socio-political background of racism and the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of the 1960s, and as a personal history of her development as a writer. In this article the major focus will be on how Brown Girl Dreaming as both a political memoir and an autobiographical narrative of identity formation is fleshed out. On the basis of my analysis of these two plot lines, I will further argue that its categorization as young adult literature disguises that the novel addresses a dual audience of adult and young readers. In my argumentation related to the political and personal character of the novel, as well as in my discussion of the crossover potential of Brown Girl Dreaming, I will focus on the presence of voice and silence.

scholarly journals I'll Give You the Sun by J. Nelson

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Wild
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
New York ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Sibling Relationship ◽  
Contemporary Fiction ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Linear Plot ◽  
To Come

Nelson, Jandy. I'll Give You the Sun. New York: Dial Books, 2014. Print.At thirteen, twins Noah and Jude seem to share an unbreakable bond that goes beyond a typical sibling relationship. Three years later, at sixteen, they are barely speaking to each other; each holding on to secrets that could completely destroy or heal their fractured relationship.A winner of the 2015 Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature and a 2015 YALSA Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults pick, I’ll Give You the Sun, is an absorbing, coming-of-age tale told from the alternating perspectives of Jude and her brother Noah.  Nelson skillfully pieces together a picture of the lives of the two protagonists as they struggle to come to terms with love, loss and alienation.Nelson blends poetic phrases and description with believable dialogue creating two distinct characters that readers will quickly identify with. The voices of Noah and Jude are so finely crafted that readers will find themselves drawn to the struggles and triumphs of these two characters. The use of non-linear plot progression will keep readers absorbed until the last page.I’ll Give You the Sun is an excellent choice for the high school reader, particularly those ready to transition to adult contemporary fiction. Nelson sensitively and frankly deals with issues such as sexual abuse, sexual orientation, bullying and infidelity. Due to the themes and topics of the book, it should be considered a mature read.Readers who enjoy authors such as John Green or A.S. King will be drawn to the writing of Jandy Nelson and I’ll Follow The Sun.Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Rachel WildRachel Wild is an English teacher at Parkland Composite High School in Edson, Alberta. She is currently enrolled the Teacher Librarianship Masters degree program through distance education. Reading and reviewing a plethora of young adult novels has renewed her interest in and passion for this genre.

On two 2018 novels in the context of the coming-of-age problem

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena A. Pogorelaya
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Summer Camp

E. Pogorelaya discusses two contemporary books with the children theme: A. Ivanov’s Food Unit [ Pishcheblok ] and X. Buksha’s Opens In [ Otkryvayetsya vnutr ]. Both focus on the problem of children’s relationship with grown-ups, as well as coming of age and the discovery of a mature self, shown as a trial that the characters must undergo. In his novel that breaks away from the logic of classic Soviet young-adult literature, Ivanov depicts the ordeal as a fight against the vampires who have taken to frequenting a children’s summer camp and use it as their ‘food unit’, while Buksha’s collected stories are about children deprived of adult help and care. Buksha and Ivanov could not be more different: they have different stylistic methods and philosophy; their work is based on dissimilar experiences and character backgrounds. Both writers, nonetheless, maintain that only through internal maturity one can overcome existing threats to personality and family. The possibility for a person to reconcile their inner adult and child selves is the problem that Buksha and Ivanov are trying to resolve. In addition to the coming-of-age stories, their books centre on rebuilding a child’s relationship with the outside world.

scholarly journals Ungdomslitteratur former(er) sig

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (75) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayoe Quist Henkel
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Reading Process ◽  
Special Role ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Way

“Young Adult Literature in Transformation”Through a media attentive analysis of the novel Akavet by Ronnie Andersen (2014) and brief discussions of other popular novels for and about young adults, this article examines the way young adult literature develops in dialogue with digital and media-based impulses and the consequences this development may have for the predication of youth and the aesthetics and possible characteristics of young adult literature. The article is based on a materiality approach especially inspired by N. Katherine Hayles which has not previously been given attention in the reading of young adult literature or in discussions of possible characteristics of young adult literature. It also includes a discussion of and a variation of Hayles’ triad of form, content and medium, and it assigns a special role to the reader’s articulation inasmuch as Akavet entails a denaturalization of the reading process. From this basis it discusses the classic assumption that young adult literature is about young people’s development process from childhood to adulthood, outlining a passage characterized by linearity, maturity and growth. The article concludes that some young adult literature is realized on yet other premises and that Akavet can be seen as an exponent for a movement from young adult literature as stories of coming-of-age to stories of being-in-age. 

scholarly journals Herstory in Young Adult Fiction by Joanna Rudniańska Based on the Examples of „Rok Smoka” and „Kotka Brygidy”

2019 ◽  
pp. 301-325
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Slany
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Young Adult Fiction ◽  
Teenage Girls ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
The World ◽  
Detailed Interpretation

The paper discusses young adult fiction by Joanna Rudniańska, whose works belong to the stream of non-conformist coming-of-age novels marked by experiences of exclusively teenage girls/women, developing in Poland since the 1990s. Both Rok Smoka and Kotka Brygidy emphasise the personal quality of teenage girls and women, and present their fates with a particular consideration of their fairly individualised processes of maturation and intentional development of their identities. The author of this paper employs feminist methodologies to emphasise the ambivalent, borderline, and negative female experiences in the analysed texts. She offers a detailed interpretation of how the protagonists of the above-mentioned novels experience the world; she applies a metaphorical and fantastic perspective of telling herstories, while searching for matrilineal traces, the phenomenon of sisterhood, drastic rituals inscribed in the feminine domain, and the special kind of coming-of-age which constitutes the starting point for personal and subjective herstories.

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