scholarly journals The Struggle is Real: Advocacy, Activism, and Agency in Young Adult Protagonists with Autism

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Vail Matsumoto ◽  
Rhonda S. Black
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
The Media ◽  
Agent Of Change

<em>While there is much research behind adolescent protagonists developing advocacy, activism, and agency in young adult literature in order to change the trajectory of their lives, fewer studies have examined adolescent protagonists with autism under similar circumstances. The image of the semi-comic, socially tragic autistic teenager is portrayed in the media more often than one who advocates for himself, takes action to be independent, and develops as an agent of change. This paper examines six award-winning young adult novels whose protagonists emerge as young people developing independence despite dealing with the challenges living with autism brings. How they exert this autonomy helps illustrate the multitude of ways in which teens handle frustration, challenges, and helplessness while managing a disability. Readers not only engage with teenagers facing obstacles, but also have the opportunity to develop a better understanding of their peers, a deeper sense of empathy, and empowerment to make changes in their own lives.</em>

scholarly journals Of Men and Masculinity: The Portrayal of Masculinity in a Selection of Award-Winning Australian Young Adult Literature

Knygotyra ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 228-259
Author(s):  
Kasey Garrison ◽  
Mary Mary ◽  
Elizabeth Derouet
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
Father Figures ◽  
Library Education ◽  
Analysis Methodology ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Verbal Bullying

This research investigates the portrayal of masculinity in Australian young adult novels published in 2019. The novels were taken from the 2020 Children’s Books Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year for Older Readers Notables List. Established in 1946, these annual awards are considered the most prominent and prestigious in Australian children’s and young adult literature and are likely to be accessible and promoted to young readers in schools and libraries. The three texts studied were Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte, The Boy who Steals Houses by C.G. Drews, and This is How We Change the Ending by Vikki Wakefield. Using a Critical Content Analysis methodology (Beach et al., 2009), researchers completed a review of the literature and theories around masculinity and chose to analyse three exemplary texts using the attributes of the Hegemonic Masculinity Schema (HMS) and Sensitive New Man Schema (SNMS) as described by Romøren and Stephens (2002). Attributes from the HMS include traits and behaviours like being violent, physical or verbal bullying, and hostile to difference while attributes from the SNMS include being supportive, affectionate, and considerate and respectful of the space and feelings of others (especially females). In this method, researchers identify examples of the attributes within the main characters and minor characters from each of the three books, recording quotes and noting critical incidents depicting aspects of masculinity. Notable findings of the research include the acknowledgment and portrayal of a particular conception of hegemonic masculinity in the selected novels often informed or shaped by the presence of dominant father figures and the absence of the concept of “the mother.” The characters who aligned to the schema used within this research are often overshadowed by a dominant father figure who conformed to an extreme version of hegemonic masculinity and who shaped their child’s actions even if the fathers were absent from the novel. The research reveals commonly held conceptions of masculinity aligned to those used in the schema and demonstrated that young adult literature, like popular media, can be used as a vehicle for the dissemination of such concepts and reveal contemporary understandings of it. Outputs from this research include the development of a modified and more contemporary schema which could be applied to future research. Significantly, this interdisciplinary research bridges the library, education and literature fields to examine the different ways maleness and masculinity are depicted to young adult readers in prize-nominated Australian young adult novels.

scholarly journals ¿Consumo irrelevante o culpable? Percepción juvenil sobre la influencia de la prensa “estilo de vida” = Irrelevant or guilty consumption? Young adult perception about the influence of 'lifestyle press'

2018 ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
María Isabel Menéndez Menéndez ◽  
Mònica Figueras Maz ◽  
Beatriz Fermina Núñez Angulo
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Reception Studies ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Youth Identity ◽  
The Media ◽  
Life Decisions

Resumen: Este texto analiza la influencia de la prensa “estilo de vida” (femenina/masculina) en la construcción de la identidad juvenil. Los objetivos del trabajo son conocer el consumo mediático de estos títulos entre chicas y chicos, así como la percepción que tienen sobre el influjo en sus vidas. Paralelamente, interesa aproximarse a la teorización de la prensa femenina/masculina para revisar las categorías conceptuales que la sostienen. La metodología se basa en un instrumento clásico de los estudios de recepción, un cuestionario online cumplimentado por una muestra representativa de 1.003 jóvenes residentes en España de entre 18 y 25 años. Las principales conclusiones revelan que la población joven asegura no consumir este tipo de prensa y que no le afecta su discurso, aunque sí afecta a otros/as. En las conclusiones se ofrecen aportaciones a las cuestiones epistemológicas y se proponen algunas razones que pueden explicar las respuestas de las y los jóvenes.Abstract: This paper analyzes the influence of “Lifestyle Press” (women/men) in the construction of youth identity. The main objectives are to know the media consumption of these magazines among girls and boys, as well as perceptions about the influence in their lives. In addition, the manuscript focuses on the conceptualization of the women/men magazines to review the categories that support it. The method is based on a classical instrument of reception studies, an online questionnaire. The representative sample involved 1,003 young people aged 18 to 25 living in Spain. The main conclusions are that young people say they do not consume these magazines and they are not affected by discourse in their life decisions, although they believe it affects others. The findings provide contributions to the epistemological issues and suggest some reasons that may explain the answers of boys and girls. 

Ethical Problems of Young-Adult Genre and Book Video Bloging, As Formation of a Reading Circle in Modern Youth

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
E. Boyarshinova
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Book Market ◽  
Market Conditions ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Current State ◽  
History Of

This paper examines the history and current state of literature for teenagers. In modern criticism young-adult genre stands out in literature for adolescents. An introductory excursion into the history of the concept of “young adults” and literature for this category of readers is given. Criticism of such works is considered by video bloggers who place their clips on Youtube platform. It is analyzed whether these responses affect the book market conditions. According to the most conservative estimates, more than half of the literature published by major publishers is Young-adult books. They are read not only by teenagers, but also by adults who want to immerse themselves in their youth. The theme of Young-adult literature is serious and multifaceted. It attracted both professional authors, whose works become real literary events, and young, non-professional authors. The study of these works is important from the point of view of studying the sociology of teenage life, to understand what young people live, what problems are reflected in such works, albeit in a crooked mirror.

Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derritt Mason
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Queer Youth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Queer Representation ◽  
The Right ◽  
Popular Television

This book considers the recent surge in queer young adult literature publishing and argues that this explosion of queer representation has prompted new forms of longstanding cultural anxieties about adolescent sexuality. In particular, critics of queer texts for young people seem concerned with the following questions: what makes for a good “coming out” story? Will increased queer representation in popular culture teach adolescents the right lessons, and help queer youth live better, happier lives? What if these stories harm young people instead of helping them? Although these concerns spring from a particular contemporary moment, Mason illustrates how the history of adolescence is itself a history of anxiety, and how young adult literature emerged, in part, as a way of managing various cultural and social anxieties. Mason suggests that “queer YA” is usefully understood as a body of trans-media texts with blurry boundaries, one that coheres around affect—specifically, anxiety—instead of content. To clarify this point, Mason draws on criticism about a range of texts for and about queer adolescents, including an assortment of young adult books; Caper in the Castro, the first-ever queer video game; online fan communities; and popular television series Glee and Big Mouth. Themes that generate the most anxiety about adolescent culture, Mason argues—queer visibility, risk-taking, HIV/AIDS, dystopia and horror, the promise that “It Gets Better” and the threat that it might not—challenge us to rethink how we read and engage with young people’s media.

scholarly journals Troubled Teens and Monstrous Others: Problematic Depictions of Characters with Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Sarah Thaller
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
American Population ◽  
Ya Literature ◽  
Taboo Topics

<p>Young adult literature has never shied away from taboo topics, particularly if the topics effect or concern adolescents. Recent studies have indicated that one fifth of the American population, about 50 million people including children and adults, live with some form of mental illness. Mental illness is clearly an issue that impacts young people, yet there are very few examples of authentic representations of characters with profound mental illness in young adult (YA) literature. This article discusses two texts that contribute to stereotypes about mental illness.</p>

On Not Defining Children's Literature

PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marah Gubar
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Peter Pan ◽  
Conduct Books ◽  
Authorial Intention ◽  
Set Up

As Roger Sale has wryly observed, “everyone knows what children's literature is until asked to define it” (1). The Reasons WHY this unruly subject is so hard to delimit have been well canvassed. If we define it as literature read by young people, any text could potentially count as children's literature, including Dickens novels and pornography. That seems too broad, just as defining children's literature as anything that appears on a publisher-designated children's or “young adult” list seems too narrow, since it would exclude titles that appeared before eighteenth-century booksellers such as John Newbery set up shop, including the Aesopica, chapbooks, and conduct books. As numerous critics have noted, we cannot simply say that children's literature consists of literature written for children, since many famous examples—Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, The Little Prince—aimed to attract mixed audiences. And, in any case, “children's literature is always written for both children and adults; to be published it needs to please at least some adults” (Clark 96). We might say that children's literature comprises texts addressed to children (among others) by authors who conceptualize young people as a distinct audience, one that requires a form of literature different in kind from that aimed at adults. Yet basing a definition on authorial intention seems problematic. Many famous children's writers have explicitly rejected the idea that they were writing for a particular age group, and many books that were not written with young people in mind have nevertheless had their status as children's or young adult literature thrust upon them, either by publishers or by readers (or both).

scholarly journals “A Friend, A Nimble Mind, and a Book”: Girls’ Literary Criticism in Seventeen Magazine, 1958–1969

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
JILL ANDERSON
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Intellectual Development ◽  
Intellectual Work ◽  
Intellectual Labor ◽  
Important Publication ◽  
Conventional Models

This article argues that postwar Seventeen magazine, a publication deeply invested in enforcing heteronormativity and conventional models of girlhood and womanhood, was in fact a more complex and multivocal serial text whose editors actively sought out, cultivated, and published girls’ creative and intellectual work. Seventeen's teen-authored “Curl Up and Read” book review columns, published from 1958 through 1969, are examples of girls’ creative intellectual labor, introducing Seventeen's readers to fiction and nonfiction which ranged beyond the emerging “young-adult” literature of the period. Written by young people – including thirteen-year-old Eve Kosofsky (later Sedgwick) – who perceived Seventeen to be an important publication venue for critical work, the “Curl Up and Read” columns are literary products in their own right, not simply juvenilia. Seventeen provided these young authors the opportunity to publish their work in a forum which offered girl readers and writers opportunities for intellectual development and community.

Young Adults as Branded Readers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Ackermans
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
New Model ◽  
Specific Target ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Since 2009, Dutch publishers are increasingly marketing and branding books as young adult literature (YAL), thereby wishing to appeal to a specific target group of young people. In exploring YAL as a brand, we observe an interesting and broad branding process, within which attention is devoted to strategies that focus on branded relationships and the creation of a lifestyle, and within which the use of social media and the utilization of readers as influencers are key. This interactive branding process is explored against the theoretical backdrop of Bourdieu’s theory of the reversed economy and Martens’s (2016) new model of publishing. The Dutch publishing house Blossom Books provides a case study for examining the (re)distribution of the roles of publishers and readers and shows how exceptional the branding of YAL is.

Taboo Teens and Ancient Adults: Overpopulation Motifs in Fictional Literature for Children and Young People

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-46
Author(s):  
Jennifer Ford
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young People ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Human Fertility

Literature for children and young people is uniquely positioned in terms of intended readership and literary genres such as the young adult dystopian novel to scrutinise intergenerational and human fertility issues associated with overpopulation. However, fictional texts that explore overpopulation have a narrative form that is unstable and unreliable due to prevailing conventions of subjectivity and optimism in children's and young adult literature. Derrida's last interview, Learning to Live, is pertinent to an understanding of motifs of overpopulation in literature for children and young people. Derrida's recognition of the ‘rights’ of future and present generations, and of the temporal intergenerational problems between parent as child, and child as parent, are explored in recent fictional texts for children and young people.

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