02 MTH2 CAC 12134 JACKSON MU-212
Welcome to YA fiction. In this course, we will read a range of novels geared to the psychological, emotional, physical, and economic transformation from adolescence to adulthood. Perhaps more than any other category, YA fiction has colonized all the major genres and themes. Expect to read sci-fi, romance, gothic, realism, dystopian, and fantasy. It offers some of the most exciting and innovative reading, which can make its themes both deeply satisfying and unsettlingly disturbing. In a sense, YA novels reflect a culture back to itself to allow emerging communities of the young to learn to perform themselves in new ways. What else would we expect of literature that targets an emerging generation as it confronts the issues and dysfunctions of the world it’s about to inherit? Expect to examine the ways this literature navigates the complexities of psychological development, identity formation, intergenerational rifts, personal relationships, and a range of other social issues and crises.