Abstract
Contemporary YA literature is pre-occupied with diversity – its inclusion and its lack. At its best, YA is a platform for marginalised voices to speak their experience to the next generation, portraying pitfalls and celebrating victories, and making the genre a richer and more engaging space. It is also, inescapably, primarily a space for adults to speak to youth. This dynamic introduces concerns about age-based power and intergenerational oppression/solidarity. ‘Aetonormativity’ is used to describe the mindset of adults creating an ‘ideal’ child, usually to prepare them be a productive citizen in adult society, and the practices they use to force/manipulate children to conform to this ideal. This age-based power is structurally reinforced in society by limiting the autonomy that a young person has until they reach a certain age. Marginalised segments of the population also experience structural inequality. The intersectional nature of certain youth, therefore, creates segments of the population who are doubly-disempowered at a structural level. Some adult characters are seen in YA fiction leaning on aetonormativity to instruct youth from marginalised communities in how best to interact with the systems that seek to oppress them. This paper examines how intersectionality colours aetonormative-coded behaviours in adult characters; how race, status, and gender interact with age-based power in the relationships between young characters and their caretakers, and how we as scholars can approach this discussion with nuance and respect. Several books pulled from the Publisher’s Weekly Best Books list will form the core of this analysis.
Presenters
Jessica SeymourLecturer in British Literature and Culture, Humanities, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
YA Literature, Literary analysis, Aetonormativity, Intersectionality, Power
