Young adult literature and the new literary theories: developing critical readers in middle school

2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (08) ◽  
pp. 37-4631-37-4631
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Literary Theories

Popular culture’s enduring influence on childhood: Fairy tale collaboration in the young adult series The Lunar Chronicles

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lykissas
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
The People ◽  
Literary Theories ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Type

Fairy tales have a long history of providing educational morals for young women, particularly children. The lessons from older fairy tales have long influenced the metanarratives regarding how women should act in our culture and contemporary versions are no different. Contemporary adaptations of these fairy tales, however, have moved the genre beyond restrictive metanarratives and are now offering new solutions to 21st-century problems like authoritarian rulers. In Marissa Meyers’ Lunar Chronicle series (2012–2015), the characters interact and work together to overcome the villain. This collaborative fairy tale is a new type of fairy tale adaptation in which the characters work together instead of focusing on their individual happily-ever-afters. My article uses postmodern and feminist literary theories along with close-reading literary analysis to examine how this young adult series shows how young adult literature has become political and is able to address adult problems in ways that are easier to process for younger readers. I focus on how the series uses the character of Levana to examine how authoritarian rulers maintain control over the populace, in order to show how the characters then work together to overthrow Levana to free the people from her oppression. This series uses collaboration to show the reader how to resolve possible problems within their own lives. Working in community then becomes as a solution for young adults who may feel disenfranchised or lonely in our increasingly divisive world. Cooperation also becomes a transgressive move against the tendency to become segregated from those around us.

Festival Attendees: A Motivation and Performance Analysis of a Young Adult Literature Festival

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen W Litvin ◽  
Emily Powell
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Performance Analysis ◽  
Survey Research ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Ya Literature ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Insight Into

This research, with data collected pre-COVID-19, provides insight into an interesting and rarely studied event, the young adult (YA) literature festival. Survey research conducted at a YA festival, with attendees generally from middle school through university age, provided useful insight into the motivations for visiting the festival, determination of the person making the decision to attend (surprisingly, the YA and rarely his/her parent) and the satisfaction and dissatisfaction factors that affected the attendee’s attitude toward the festival. In addition, Significance Performance Analysis (SPA) is introduced as an alternative to the widely used Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) model.

scholarly journals Multiple Motivations to Read Young Adult Literature in the Lives of Three African-American Middle School Males

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Groenke ◽  
Stacey Reece ◽  
Allison Varnes
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
African American ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
African American Adolescent

In this article, we share what young adult literature three male African-American adolescent participants in this study—Tariq, Tyrell, and Tyrone—chose to read when given opportunities to choose. We also share what they had to say about the literature, about reading, and about themselves as readers. The participants’ own words and text choices reveal much about what kind of young adult literature they find relevant, and why, and point to multiple motivations—both intrinsic and extrinsic, personal and social—for reading young adult literature.

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