YA Literature

Peer Culture – A Brief HistoryKey Trends/Authors in YA Literature

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

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.

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

Parents Know What They’re Doing!!!

History of Adolescent Culture/Literature

Series fiction, 1890-1930Absence of parents – or tendency to suggest that adults are “square”

Lots of adventureGuidebooks to gaining autonomy from authority figures

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

Wild Girls!

Tuff Boys!

Tom Swift’s Gadgets

Futuristic Tom!

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.

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

History of Adolescent Culture/Literature

High School curricular decisions, 1940 onwardShift from exclusive teaching of the “classics” to texts that focused on adolescence

Influence of The Catcher in the Rye (1952)

History of Adolescent Culture/Literature

Between 1960 and 1980, Adolescent Literature undergoes these changes:Shift from 3rd person narration to 1st

person narrationGreater diversity in terms of

protagonistsGreater focus on realism when it

comes to dialogue, situation, and character development

History of Adolescent Culture/Literature

The Teen Problem Novel, 1960-1975Increasing attempt to write in the “voice” of the adolescent protagonist

Focus on “hot button” issues that most upset adults about teenagers.

A Problem novel about boys’ gangs, written by a 17-year old girl!

S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders (1967)

Scary Problem NovelAnonymous, Go Ask Alice (1971)

A Problem Novel with an Indeterminate Ending!

Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War (1974)

The Most Popular Problem Novel EVER!

Judy Blume, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970)

History of Adolescent Culture/Literature

Rise of Psychological Realism, 1975-PresAuthors 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

Nancy Garden, Annie on My Mind (1982)

Jess Mowry, Babylon Boyz (1997)

Psychological Realism in YA Literature

And then…there was Harry!

Graphic Novels

Popular Graphic Novels

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.

Important Terms from Today’s Lecture

Peer cultureDidacticismArtifactIntended AudienceSeries FictionVoiceIndeterminate EndingGraphic Novel