Critical Explorations of Young Adult Literature

Identifying and Critiquing the Canon

Victor Malo-Juvera, Crag Hill, Victor Malo-Juvera, Crag Hill

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367339326
• eBook ISBN: 9781000769999
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Recognizing the determination of a canon as an ongoing process of discussion and debate, which helps us to better understand the concept of meaningful and important literature, this edited collection turns a critical spotlight on young adult literature (YAL) to explore some of the most read, taught, and discussed books of our time.

By considering the unique criteria which might underpin the classification of a YAL canon, this text raises critical questions of what it means to define canonicity and designate certain books as belonging to the YAL canon. Moving beyond ideas of what is taught or featured in textbooks, the volume emphasizes the role of adolescents' choice, the influence of popular culture, and above all the multiplicity of ways in which literature might be interpreted and reflected in the lives of young readers. Chapters examine an array of texts through varied critical lenses, offer detailed literary analyses and divergent interpretations, and consider how themes might be explored in pedagogical contexts. By articulating the ways in which teachers and young readers may have traditionally interpreted YAL, this volume will extend debate on canonicity and counter dominant narratives that posit YAL texts as undeserving of canonical status.

This text will be of great interest to graduate and postgraduate students, academics, professionals, and libraries in the field of young adult literature, fiction literacy, children's literacy and feminist studies.

1
The Young Adult Canon

A Literary Solar System

Victor Malo-Juvera and Crag Hill

Popular culture is dominated by young adult literature. Young adult (YA) texts have been an impressive presence on the silver screen over the past decades as cinematic series such as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Twilight, Percy Jackson, and The Chronicles of Narnia have dominated the box office. The impact of these films and others are felt beyond theaters as many YA books have become cultural phenomena, expanding YA franchises into theme parks, Broadway plays, and endless paraphernalia. The publishing industry has benefited from the explosion in YA and has witnessed children’s and YA fiction grow. From 2013 to 2017 sales increased 11.3%, representing 3.67 billion dollars and accounting for 14% of the entire publishing industry’s revenue (Association of American Publishers, 2018). With such growth, popularity, and influence come critiques, judgments, and rankings—and notions of canonicity soon follow.

Canonicity

The concept of canons is well entrenched throughout history in fields such as Greek and Roman literature, architecture, music, and biblical literature. The term “canon” may have slightly different meanings depending upon which context is being used, in literature it is often defined as a group of texts believed to be of enduring literary quality (Cuddon, 2013) but has also been described by Bloom (1994) as “a list of books for required study” (p. 17). Although in previous centuries the power of critics and scholars was central for a text to attain canonical status, in the 21st century, perhaps reflecting the shift to a consumer culture, the impact of consumption must also enter into the discussion of any literary canons. A text that is not read is not canonical.

We have previously argued that “to be taught is to be canonical” (Hill & Malo-Juvera, 2019, p. 3) when discussing the canon of secondary schools; however, when addressing young adult literature, a more nuanced set of criteria is warranted because YA literature does not dominate high school classrooms to the same extent as traditional texts. Thus, because YA texts are not ubiquitously taught outside of a few YA textbooks (Bucher & Hinton, 2013; Nilsen, Blasingame, Donelson, & Nilsen, 1980/2014) and in YA literature classrooms on college campuses, general readership plays a more important role in discussions of YA literature and canonicity. Although there may be a causal relationship between the reading and teaching of classic texts—teachers assign texts that students purchase and, ideally, read—when considering YA literature this relationship may not exist because YA texts are not assigned as whole-class required readings as frequently. There are some exceptions, such as The Outsiders (Hinton, 1967), considered by many to be the first young adult novel, and Speak (Anderson, 1999), which were both found to be among the most taught books in high schools with similar frequency as established canonical titles such as Lord of the Flies, Julius Caesar, and Night (Stotsky, Traffas, & Woodworth, 2010). Ultimately, though, independent readership of texts is much more important in young adult literature than it is in traditional literary canons.

What Is Young Adult Literature?

Before examining the elements that contribute to membership in the YA canon, it is important to explicate what YA literature is. Hill (2014) pointed out that one reason for the continued misconceptions about the literary and educative value of YA literature might be because even those who study and teach it have not reached consensus on a definition. Lacking one, it is difficult to have clear, substantive conversations about what YA literature is. In many cases, some of the definitions that have been offered to date may even create confusion, while others lack the breadth and depth with which to focus and foster the kind of critical inquiry that will enhance the understanding and value of young adult literature.

One prominent definition that one of the co-editors of this project shared when he was teaching high school English was Nilsen et al.’s (1980/2014) definition that young adult literature included books that readers age 12–20 chose independently. This definition then included The Giver next to Infinite Jest, The Hunger Games next to Plato’s Republic, and Slaughterhouse Five next to Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, all books his students were choosing to read and talk about with their peers. Later, as an instructor of a YA literature class at a university, that definition became unwieldy and then was far too inclusive when he began to write critically about YA literature. Though The Giver may share some themes with Infinite Jest, the differences in the two books made it impossible to explore both as examples of YA literature.

At the other extreme, Tomlinson and Lynch-Brown (2010) offered a concise definition with two criteria: YA literature is a “literature written for young people age eleven to eighteen and books marketed as ‘young adult’ by a publisher” (p. 4). The specificity of this definition sharpened the focus needed for literary criticism, narrowing the number of books critics might study, tightening up the field. Yet more descriptors are needed to give that focus the nuance to enable deep and rich critical inquiry, such as Small (1992) provided when he wrote that YA literature includes a teenager who is the main character and, as the center of the plot, engages in problems related to and relatable to the lives of teenagers. In addition, dialogue in YA literature will be representative of teen speech, while the “point of view presents an adolescent’s interpretation of events and people … and the actions and decisions of the main character are major factors in the outcome of the conflict” (quoted in Herz & Gallo, 1996/2005, pp. 8–9). Campbell (2010) fleshed that out by arguing that the voice of the narrator is important, YA novels are told by “a teen protagonist speaking from an adolescent point of view, with all the limitations of understanding this implies” (p. 75).

To distinguish YA literature from children’s literature, Trites (2000) argued, “YA novels tend to interrogate social constructions, foregrounding the relationship between the society and the individual rather than focusing on Self and self-discovery as children’s literature does” (p. 20). Coats (2011), separating YA literature from middle-grade literature, believed that novels with a closed moral universe in which the bad are punished and the good rewarded is “pre-adolescent, whereas a book that calls that moral universe into question, such as The Chocolate War … or Monster … is clearly YA” (p. 322). Some critics have argued against the term “young adult literature” itself. Aronson (2001) asserted that the term “requires us, simultaneously, to define three inherently unstable terms: what are young adults, what is literature, and what is the literature that has some special link to those readers” (pp. 31–32).

Though the discussions around defining YA literature have mapped out that term in ways that shape critical inquiry in the field, we realize these discussions, now decades in the making, are ongoing. However, for this project, we put forward the definition that has framed our thinking and the thinking of our chapter authors. The YA literature explored in this collection, 13 novels, one graphic novel, and one graphic memoir, engages readers in the experiences of adolescents, lived and imagined. Across all 15 books, the narratives, whether written from a first- or third-person point of view, enable close identification, engendering empathy, particularly with the narrator and/or protagonist. In agreement with Trites (2000) and Coats (2011), we also maintain that YA literature explicitly or implicitly problematizes the dominant norms of the world within which the characters navigate. In all 15 books, the characters perceive their world differently—and are perceived differently by those in their world—at the end of the novel. For some characters, those differences are resolved; for others it remains to be seen what the effects of the events the story will have on their lives.

Historical Context

Born almost in the same year—so sisters, in some ways—the Children’s Literature Association (ChLA; in 1972) and the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN; in 1973) shared initial purposes: to gather those interested in studying children’s and/or young adult literature (ChLA subsumed young adult literature in children’s literature at the time and, in many ways, still does; Pattee, 2017); ALAN focused on literature for adolescents, age 12–20 (e.g., Nilsen et al., 1980/2014), to share ideas, to move forward the understanding—and, for ALAN, the teaching—of the literature for and about children and adolescents.

But then the sisters went their own ways. ChLA worked to establish a footing in the field of literary criticism in the Modern Language Association (McGillis, 2010), the professional organization supporting literary studies in departments of English in colleges and universities. To legitimize the critical study of children’s literature, members of ChLA and their associates published dozens of articles and books starting in the 1980s, analyzing children’s literature through a number of different critical lenses that had heretofore scrutinized adult literature. ALAN chose other vital, vibrant paths, working in and out of the trenches of grade 4–12 classrooms, illuminating—and advocating for—generation after generation of YA literature authors, strategizing ways to infuse YA literature into secondary English language arts curricula, in many ways and places disrupting/displacing the high school canon. The focus for ALAN was more on what the texts could do for students and less on what the texts were doing (that focus has shifted/is shifting as The ALAN Review, SIGNAL, and Study & Scrutiny publish critical articles in each issue).

To jumpstart critical scholarship, the Children’s Literature Association in 1978 formed a discussion group to select a c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Author Bio
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 The Young Adult Canon: A Literary Solar System
• SECTION I The Center of the Canon
• SECTION II Seminal Works
• SECTION III Contemporaries
• Index