Young Adult Literature - Detailseite

As Rebekah Fitzsimmons and Casey Alane Wilson write in their book on young adult fiction published in the English language, “[y]oung adult literature – much like the audience to which it caters – is both young and profoundly complex” (Beyond the Blockbusters xi). YA literature is young, because the category “young adult” was only invented in the 1960s to capture the realities of the age span 12-18 and to capitalize on the consumerism of this age group. YA literature is shaped by the realities of young adults as much as young adults are shaped by it. In this course, we will explore the assumptions aimed at YA writing, its potential and its – maybe surprising – complexity. YA writing is mostly aimed to inspire and to instruct young adult readers and can therefore be used in classrooms to explore the realities and identities of young adults. By means of the selected readings, we will address a variety of hierarchies young adults are exposed to, for example those created by sizeism, racism and classism. You will be asked to read three novels: (1) Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’ (2015), (2) Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give (2017), and (3) Elizabeth Acevedo’s With the Fire on High (2019). Additional texts will be made available to Moodle. Assignments will include short text responses in class and a written assignment about one of the readings.