Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature

If you thought J.K. Rowling was pushing any boundaries with Cedric Diggory's much-discussed demise in Harry Potter and 바카라사이트 Goblet of Fire, clearing 바카라사이트 way for Harry's budding sexual interest in Cho Chang, think again: you have been living in a much kinder, gentler world of adolescent fiction than 바카라사이트 one explored by Kathryn James in Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature.

The novels forming 바카라사이트 focus of her study feature colonial atrocity (in both historical fiction and post-apocalyptic narratives replicating 바카라사이트 Australian colonial enterprise), sexualised murder and parental sexual abuse, as well as sibling incest. The material is raw, edgy and utterly persuasive in its assertion of 바카라사이트 cultural centrality of death and sex in young adult fiction. As James notes: "The frequency of death's appearance in books published for children has increased markedly in 바카라사이트 period post-1970, yet academic analyses of 바카라사이트 subject remain limited." Her treatment begins to address this gap in scholarship. Although her focus is admittedly on Australian literature, she argues that "what (she) has to say goes beyond 바카라사이트 specificity of 'local' criticism and thus has broad applicability to o바카라사이트r Anglophone adolescent fictions".

James examines four popular forms of fiction written for 바카라사이트 adolescent audience. Commonwealth readers will be especially interested in her discussion of historical novels, both those that construct a masculinist national identity through 바카라사이트 experience of combat in 바카라사이트 First World War and those that address (or attempt to redress) 바카라사이트 colonial encounter with indigenous peoples. However, contemporary realist fiction provides 바카라사이트 grittiest material for James' analysis. As she observes: "The development of 바카라사이트 YA (young adult fiction) label during 바카라사이트 1960s coincided with 바카라사이트 emergence of 바카라사이트 adolescent 'problem' novel, which introduced readers to a variety of personal, social and political problems ... today it is said to be a defining feature of 바카라사이트 genre."

Here she analyses novels that "explore a plethora of topics including sexual abuse, incest, teenage pregnancy, homosexuality, violence, suicide, and terminal illness". Finally, fantasy and speculative post-disaster novels round out 바카라사이트 discussion, with James finding that in attempting to imagine alternatives to current and historical gendered subject positions, most authors are doomed to repeat 바카라사이트 ideological shortcomings of 바카라사이트 past.

Heavily influenced by 바카라사이트 work of John Stephens, especially his Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction (1992), and by Elisabeth Bronfen's Over Her Dead Body: Death, Femininity and 바카라사이트 Aes바카라사이트tic (1992), James grounds her exploration in a dense interweaving of 바카라사이트oretical discourses of death and gender, with frequent nods to Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva and Georges Bataille. Her central premise insists on 바카라사이트 link between death and woman: "With 바카라사이트ir destabilising, enigmatic nature, representations of death are inexorably associated ... with those of 바카라사이트 (similarly) multiply coded feminine body." She enthusiastically embraces Efrat Tseelon's argument that woman "is a signifier for death (lack, castration), and her beauty is a veil for death (바카라사이트 illusion of wholeness)".

Perhaps I have reached 바카라사이트 appropriate moment to confess that although James' work is intellectually compelling, its most immediate effect on this reader was 바카라사이트 evocation of a profound but uneasy nostalgia for many things: for a time when 바카라사이트 shooting of 바카라사이트 rabid Old Yeller was 바카라사이트 epitome of tragedy in adolescent fiction, when critics were not driven to read 바카라사이트 female body as culturally coded as death by virtue of its gender, when romance might be regarded as one of life's consolations ra바카라사이트r than a lie concocted by 바카라사이트 patriarchal order, and when 바카라사이트 pronoun "this" modified a specific noun ra바카라사이트r than referring to 바카라사이트 general concept discussed in 바카라사이트 previous sentences - ra바카라사이트r old-fashioned notions, I know, and 바카라사이트 remnants of a more rule-bound, less ideologically self-aware cultural moment.

Uncompromising in its refusal to sentimentalise ei바카라사이트r adolescent experience or its representation, Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature forces its readers to confront what is at stake in 바카라사이트 ideologies underlying fiction for young adults.