ENGL 335 Young Adult Literature
This course is designed to situate students in the critical conversation surrounding Young Adult Literature: when did it appear as a genre, who were/are the critical players, what are the major themes, literary devices, and motifs that define YA lit., who should be reading it, what is the value of reading it, and what is its place in the literary canon? As such, the course will examine texts that provide a historical perspective, such as J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, alongside contemporary texts, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park, to explore the debates surrounding this increasingly popular genre and to challenge the criteria that establish texts as young adult literature and the assumptions about the genre itself. To help us uncover these topics, we will explore a variety of secondary sources that both critique and praise young adult literature. Course topics may include misperceptions of YA literature, the presence of violence and dystopia in YA lit., trigger warnings, the YA gender divide, and future YA trends. We will also discuss common themes in YA literature: adolescent angst, sexuality, familial relationships, race, class, difference, gender, and a range of other social and psychological themes.
Cross Listed Courses
N/A
Corequisite
N/A