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YA Literature

YA Literature. Peer Culture – A Brief History Key Trends/Authors in YA Literature. History of Peer Culture/YA Literature. 19 th -Century Developments that Led to the Rise of Peer Culture Child Labor Laws Mandatory Education Relaxing of Parental Control Increase in Leisure Time.

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YA Literature

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  1. YA Literature • Peer Culture – A Brief History • Key Trends/Authors in YA Literature

  2. History of Peer Culture/YA Literature • 19th-Century Developments that Led to the Rise of Peer Culture • Child Labor Laws • Mandatory Education • Relaxing of Parental Control • Increase in Leisure Time

  3. Life Before YA Literature • Prior to 1890, most literature written for teenagers was non-fiction and focused on advice about how to behave in society • Works of fiction that were read by teenagers were very DIDACTIC – meaning that they were intended to teach teenagers lessons. Books that fell into this category included Little Women and Anne of Green Gables.

  4. Life Before YA Literature • Characteristics of nineteenth-century literature for young readers: • Parents and other adult authority figures are portrayed as “all knowing” and wise; • Gendered literature put forward highly conventional futures for protagonists: • Girls were shown preparing to be wives and mothers • Boys were shown preparing for a career • Authors often addressed readers directly and stated the “moral” of the story clearly

  5. Parents Know What They’re Doing!!!

  6. History of Adolescent Culture/Literature • Series fiction, 1890-1930 • Absence of parents – or tendency to suggest that adults are “square” • Lots of adventure • Guidebooks to gaining autonomy from authority figures

  7. Parents? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Parents!

  8. Wild Girls!

  9. Tuff Boys!

  10. Tom Swift’s Gadgets

  11. Futuristic Tom!

  12. History of Adolescent Culture/Literature • Return of the Censors, 1930-1960 • Major publishing companies saw how much profit the smaller firms were making, so they decided to spend more time publishing Young Adult Literature. • The result was, for the most part, a return to the sort of conventional stories that had been popular before 1890 – stories in which parents were wise guides to whom teenagers went for advice. • Most YA literature focused on everyday problems that a teenager might face, like asking someone out on a date or trying to get good grades.

  13. “Gee, Suzie, will you go out with me?”

  14. History of Adolescent Culture/Literature • High School curricular decisions, 1940 onward • Shift from exclusive teaching of the “classics” to texts that focused on adolescence • Influence of The Catcher in the Rye (1952)

  15. History of Adolescent Culture/Literature • Between 1960 and 1980, Adolescent Literature undergoes these changes: • Shift from 3rd person narration to 1st person narration • Greater diversity in terms of protagonists • Greater focus on realism when it comes to dialogue, situation, and character development

  16. History of Adolescent Culture/Literature • The Teen Problem Novel, 1960-1975 • Increasing attempt to write in the “voice” of the adolescent protagonist • Focus on “hot button” issues that most upset adults about teenagers.

  17. S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1967) A Problem novel about boys’ gangs, written by a 17-year old girl!

  18. Scary Problem Novel Anonymous, Go Ask Alice (1971)

  19. Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War (1974) A Problem Novel with an Indeterminate Ending!

  20. Judy Blume, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970) The Most Popular Problem Novel EVER!

  21. History of Adolescent Culture/Literature • Rise of Psychological Realism, 1975-Pres • Authors begin to disregard what adults want young people to read; focus on depicting the inner lives of teenagers; stop writing “happy endings” • New voices and new issues enter the field • YA Novels become sites of resistance against the larger culture’s ideas about the behavior of teenagers

  22. Psychological Realism in YA Literature Nancy Garden, Annie on My Mind (1982) Jess Mowry, Babylon Boyz (1997)

  23. And then…there was Harry!

  24. Graphic Novels

  25. Popular Graphic Novels

  26. Image and Text! • Most emotions or ideas come across with great strength through a combination of pictures and text. Here, it might have taken a traditional author 5 or 6 pages to convey what Yang can convey in 4 frames.

  27. Important Terms from Today’s Lecture • Peer culture • Didacticism • Artifact • Intended Audience • Series Fiction • Voice • Indeterminate Ending • Graphic Novel

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