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Chen, Jou-An. "Airship, Automaton, and Alchemy: A Steampunk Exploration of Young Adult Science Fiction." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Humanities, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/7423.
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Steampunk first appeared in the 1980s as a subgenre of science fiction, featuring anachronistic technologies with a veneer of Victorian sensibilities. In recent years steampunk has re-emerged in young adult science fiction as a fresh and dynamic subgenre, which includes titles such as The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross, The Hunchback Assignment by Arthur Slade, and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. Like their predecessors, these modern steampunk novels for teens use retrofuturistic historiography and innovative mechanical aesthetics to dramatize the volatile relationship between man and technology, only in these novels the narrative is intentionally set in the context of their teen protagonist's social and emotional development. However, didactic conventions such as technophobia and the formulaic linearity of the bildungsroman narrative complicate and frustrate steampunk's representation of adolescent formation. Using case studies of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld and The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia, retrofuturism and technological hybridity are presented as defining features of steampunk that subvert
young adult science fiction's technophobic and liberal humanist traditions. The dirigible and the automaton are examined as the quintessential tropes of steampunk fiction that reproduce the necessary amphibious quality, invoking new expressions and
understanding of adolescent growth and identity formation that have a distinctly utopian, nostalgic, and ecocentric undertone.
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Brodie, Jessica J. "Children in science fiction utopias: feminism's blueprint for change." FIU Digital Commons, 1999. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2425.
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The purpose of this thesis was to examine the treatment and portrayal of children in science fiction utopian literature and determine whether this effectively indicated the writers’ feminist visions for social change. A feminist theoretical perspective and critical interpretation of several of the genre’s canon, Sheri Tepper’s The Gate to Women’s Country, Suzy McKee Chamas’s Motherlines, Sally Miller Gearhart’s The Wanderground, Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed and Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series, were used as research methodologies.
The findings revealed that children communicate feminist prescriptions for change in three ways: children as the literal, biological future, the link between two opposing societies, or the explanation for the difficult philosophies and structural elements of the societies. As this subject has been an unexplored area of criticism, it is recommended that critics begin to examine this treatment of children to more easily understand the writers’ social visions and effect their blueprints for change.
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Albert, Brynn. "Themes of Diversity in YA Lit: An Excerpt From 'Initiate'." Kent State University Honors College / OhioLINK, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1494727060222522.
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Mavrick, Kandace Edana Vashti. "The path of the monster : the alien ‘other’ in science fiction and fantasy for young adults." Thesis, Curtin University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/228.
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This thesis explores the way in which representations of the alien ‘other’ in SF for young adults are used as a tool for exploring the self/other dichotomy in the process of identity formation. It intends to develop a clear view of current, popular forms of representation of the alien other in this area, contribute to the still nascentcriticism of YA SF, and also operate as a constructive tool for creative writers working in this field.The exegesis is a meta-critical commentary on the YA SF field in general and the role of the character of the alien other within it in particular. It elucidates the preoccupation of the YA genre with ideas of identity and subjectivity and links this to developmental psychology, demonstrating the way that the self/other dichotomy in identity formation forms the basis of the character of the alien other and its expression in fiction and explaining the fascination and potential value of these characters to a young adult audience. It further looks at the way these characters are created and read and the limitations and possibilities that exist for authors in their construction, delineating the various archetypical constructions of these characters and exploring the ramifications of various methods of representation.The creative component of the thesis is a young adult fantasy novel, The Path of the Monster that explores the self/other dichotomy, challenging traditional binaries such as ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and questioning assumptions and understandings about identity and otherness. It particularly highlights the question ‘who is the monster?’, confronting expectations about the role of the other and simultaneously exploring the feeling of alienation that is common to the adolescent experience.
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Everett, Katharine More. "Eden." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1589227367791853.
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Makaresz, Sandra Jane. "Skydweller and representations of the adolescent crisis : group identity versus alienation." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/32176/1/Sandra_Makaresz_Thesis.pdf.
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This document contains a creative work – the text of a young adult novel, Skydweller – and an exegesis discussing the ways in which identity and the adolescent crisis of group identity versus alienation are represented in young adult science fiction/fantasy novels.
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Chew, Laureen. "Chinese American images in selected children's fiction for kindergarten through sixth grade." Scholarly Commons, 1986. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2131.
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The purpose of this study is to investigate Chinese American images in selected children's fiction to determine whether or not data support the position of the Council on Interracial Books for Children, that the works of fiction studied tend to stereotype Chinese Americans.
After reading the selected fifteen works of fiction, a criterion checklist was devised by the investigator to examine the behavior and lifestyle of Chinese Americans depicted in a variety of circumstances. validity of the criterion checklist was established by a panel of experts in the area of Chinese American studies. Inter-rater reliability was determined by two readers who utilized the criterion checklist to analyze the content of one lower elementary grade and one upper elementary grade work of fiction. Finally, the criterion checklist was used to analyze the fifteen works of fiction and draw conclusions related to the purpose of this study.
The findings in this study do support the conclusions of the Council on Interracial Books for Children that this group of fiction portrays Chinese Americans in a one dimensional, stereotypic manner. In the checklist items related to environment, food, utensils, physical attributes, cultural celebrations, occupations, and recreation, Chinese Americans were portrayed as adhering to Chinese-specific characteristics. However, in cross-cultural and behavioral items, Chinese Americans were portrayed as desiring Western-specific characteristics. This tendency was especially prevalent in upper elementary grade fiction. A more integrative or multi-dimensional view of Chinese Americans appreciating, and able to function well in, both cultural contexts is disconcertingly absent.
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations are made:
1. That teachers, librarians, and other school personnel who use this collection of books, supplement them with materials containing contemporary and realistic information about Chinese Americans.
2. That future writers of children's fiction dealing with Chinese Americans portray them in a multidimensional manner.
3. That curriculum writers of textbooks use a similar criterion checklist to offset the one-dimensionality of Chinese American images in existing children's literature.
4. That future writers of children's fiction on Chinese Americans utilize a criterion checklist such as the one in this study to assist them in developing multi-dimensional characters.
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Balster, Lori Maria Tarkany. "Cassie Dates Melvin: Or, How Two People Struggle to Save Their Town Despite a Few Small Obstacles Such as Killer Philodendrons (an Excerpt from Book Two in a Series)." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1280259112.
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Lilja, Malin. "“This is who I am” : Representation av asexualitet i samtida coming of age-litteratur." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-42677.
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Syftet med studien är att utforska representationer av asexualitet i samtida coming of age-ungdomsromaner med fokus på hur asexualitet (o)möjliggörs som en oproblematiserad position. Detta görs genom en närläsning av romanerna Tash Hearts Tolstoy, Let’s Talk About Love, Loveless och Beyond the Black Door utifrån ett queerteoretiskt perspektiv. Romanernas skildringar av asexualitet utmanar föreställningar om att sexuellt begär är en essentiell del i vuxenblivandet och tillåter den asexuella positionen att existera utan att formas av negativa stereotyper. Romanernas huvudpersoner genomgår processer av att komma till insikt om sin asexuella identitet, acceptera den för sig själva och komma ut med den för omgivningen. Den obligatoriska sexualiteten är ständigt närvarande i dessa processer men det är den asexuella positionens marginaliserade position jämte den obligatoriska sexualiteten som framställs som problemet snarare än asexualiteten i sig.The aim of the study is to explore representations of asexuality in contemporary coming of age young adult novels with a focus on how asexuality is made (im)possible as an unproblematic position. This is done through a close reading of the novels Tash Hearts Tolstoy, Let’s Talk About Love, Loveless and Beyond the Black Door from a queer theoretical perspective. The novels’ depictions of asexuality challenge notions that sexual desire is an essential part of becoming an adult and allow the asexual position to exist without being shaped by negative stereotypes. The protagonists of the novels go through processes of realizing and accepting their asexuality for themselves and also coming out to their surroundings. Compulsory sexuality is constantly present in these processes, but it is the marginalization of the asexual position in relation to compulsory sexuality that is understood as the problem rather than asexuality itself.
2021-06-02
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Lyons, Reneé C. "Trips & Treks: Life Sustaining Expeditions Portrayed in Children’s Nonfiction." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2014. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2385.
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Discover the stories of major natural science expeditions, as depicted in award-winning children's non-fiction. Examples include Robert Siebert award winner, Parrots over Puerto Rico, and Orbis Pictus winner, Quest for the Tree Kangaroo. While sharing Common Core correlations and reading promotion activities, participants explore how literature encurages children to care for and consider the natural world of which they are part.
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Marelli, Edith. ""...ett sånt mysterium som man blir lämnad med."." Thesis, Malmö högskola, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-32663.
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Reading is considered to be one of the main factors for success throughout the compulsory education and into the years in upper secondary school, and is often connected with instrumental values, such as better grades and higher level of empathy. However, good readers are seldom drawn to books as means to improve their grades, but enjoy reading in its own right. The curriculum for for the upper secondary education in Swedish on the other hand stipulates that students should learn to analyse literature – i.e. learn how to do a reading rather than develop as readers.This study looks at two groups of upper secondary school students discussing two different young-adult novels, and analyses the recordings from a reader-response perspective. As readers they focus mainly on the plot, and their knowledge of story line and genre seems to draw heavily from film, but they also come to the text with different expectations and experiences, which influence their reading. An initial resistance for one reader could be the same factor making the book too trivial for another. Possible implications for teachers are that consideration for the aim of the reading should be made when choosing books for students, as it might be counterproductive to expect inexperienced readers to perform literary analysis if the goal is to develop reading.
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Hodge, Diana Victoria, and dhodge@utas edu au. "Victorianisms in twentieth century young adult fiction." Deakin University. School of Communication and Creative Arts, 2006. http://tux.lib.deakin.edu.au./adt-VDU/public/adt-VDU20060525.151043.
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This thesis investigates the origins of contemporary fictional constructions of childhood by examining the extent to which current literary representations of children and childhood have departed from their Victorian origins. I set out to test my intuition that many contemporary young adult novels perpetuate Victorian ideals and values in their constructions of childhood, despite the overt circumstantial modernity of the childhoods they represent. The question this thesis hopes to answer therefore is, how Victorian is contemporary young adult fiction?
To gauge the degree of change that has taken place since the Victorian period, differences and points of continuity between representations of nineteenth century childhood and twentieth century childhood will be sought and examined in texts from both eras. The five aspects of fictional representation that I focus on are: notions of innocence; sexuality; the child as saviour; the use of discipline and punishment to create the ideal child; and the depiction of childhood and adulthood as separate worlds.
The primary theoretical framework used derives from Michel Foucaults concepts of the construction of subjectivity through discourse, discipline and punishment, and his treatment of repression and power, drawn mainly from The History of Sexuality vol. 1 (1976) and Discipline and Punish; the Birth of the Prison (1977). I have chosen to use Foucault primarily because of the affinity between his work on the social construction of knowledge and the argument that childhood is a constructed rather than essential category; and because Foucaults work on Victorian sexuality exposes links with current thinking rather than perpetuating assumptions about sexual repression in this period.
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Lou, Sabrina. "Paradise girls : contemporary realistic young adult fiction /." Access resource online, 2009. http://scholar.simmons.edu/handle/10090/12593.
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Escuadro, Nicole. "Desire and discourse in innovative young adult fiction." CONNECT TO ELECTRONIC THESIS, 2008. http://dspace.wrlc.org/handle/1961/5526.
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Moore, Belinda S. "Young adult dystopian fiction in the postnatural age." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2016. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101535/1/Belinda_Moore_Thesis.pdf.
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This creative works thesis comprises an exegesis and a novel. Both explore the ways that a postnatural perspective can shape the reading and writing of young adult dystopian fiction. Approaching literature from a postnatural perspective can highlight a connection between shifts in a novel's key terms and the development of the protagonist towards understanding their world as an interconnected ecosystem. Through its grounding in ecocriticism and children's literature criticism, this research investigates the contributions a postnatural perspective offers young adult dystopian fiction generally, and specifically, in the development of the novel When the Cloud Hit the Kellys.
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Jangula, Mootz Kaylee Blanche. "Resisting Rape Myths in Young Adult Fiction: An Analysis of Young Adult Novels Speak and Crank." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2016. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28035.
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Introducing young people to fiction that depicts rape is important in that reading this type
of fiction can be a more effective strategy for reducing rape-myth acceptance in young people
than lecture-based prevention programs. To be fully effective, literature used for lowering rapemyth
acceptance must fully resist rape myths. This paper analyzes Speak by Laurie Halse
Anderson and CRANK by Ellen Hopkins to find the ways in which each novel resists and
conforms to rape myths, to determine whether these texts would be suitable for reducing rapemyth
acceptance, and to identify ways in which future texts that aim to reduce rape-myth
acceptance in young readers can be more effective. Neither Speak nor CRANK fully resists rape
myths, which reinforces the validity of rape myths to young adult readers. Both novels resist rape
myths that attempt to deny the reality of rape while conforming to rape myths that blame the
victim.
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Lawrinson, Julia Michelle. "Skating the Edge : A Young Adult Novel." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2003. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/366.
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Skating the Edge is a contemporary Young Adult novel, set partly in an adolescent psychiatric hospital in the narrated present time, and partly in the school and home of the protagonist Caitlin Michaels, in the narrated past. The novel deals with Caitlin's attempts to understand the suicide of one of the residents of the hospital, Anna, and also to understand the events that led to her own hospitalisation, which include her complicated relationship with her talented older brother, Nick. As the narrative unfolds, it is evident that Anna's suicide has been prompted by serial sexual abuse at the hands of her father and the inappropriate relationship between Anna and a male psychiatric nurse.
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Martin, Patricia L. "Minority protagonists in the young adult historical fiction novel." [Denver, Colo.] : Regis University, 2007. http://165.236.235.140/lib/PMartin2007.pdf.
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Moore, John Noell. "Tracing the weave : reading and interpreting young adult fiction /." Diss., This resource online, 1995. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-02022007-133645/.
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Komninou, Nikolitsa. "The awarded young adult novel in Greece (1985-2004)." University of Sydney, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/2764.
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Master of PhilosophyThe purpose of this study was to examine the adolescent novels that were awarded in Greece from 1985 till 2005 by four major organizations. The primary focus was to outline the main characteristics of the awarded adolescent novel that developed during the last 20 years in Greece and secondly, to examine the main characteristics of those awarded novels so as to understand the importance of this newly formed genre and the important role it can play in the development of the adolescent. In the first part of the study we outlined the development and the main characteristics of the adolescent novel while we focused on the different criteria that are used by the four major organizations that award and promote this literary genre in Greece. The second part of the study analyzes the various stages of the buildingsroman as it’s seen through the themes of the novels, while a major component of it deals with the way the Greek identity is portrayed and promoted as well as the model of the adolescent hero. The study suggested that adolescence is the period between childhood and adulthood, during which the adolescent changes both biologically and psychologically and those changes are directly related to his/her future personality. The study also indicates that the adolescent novel describes that period that coincides with the final stages of the maturation of the teenager. Therefore, the adolescent readers identify themselves with the heroes, their emotions, and the various problems with references to the surrounding environment and the every day life. It was also suggested that the adolescent reader can discover a role model in the novel’s heroes and heroines which could lead to a self evaluation and an evaluation of the others around him, while at the same time he/she can enjoy the entertainment and aesthetic values of the novel.
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Al, Jomaa Mervat. "Re-mapping adolescence : psychoanalysis and narrative in young adult fiction." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.715720.
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Whateley, Anna. ""Surviving" adolescence : apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic transformations in young adult fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2010. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/37602/1/Anna_Whateley_Thesis.pdf.
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This study, entitled "Surviving" Adolescence: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic transformations in young adult fiction‖, analyses how discourses surrounding the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic are represented in selected young adult fiction published between 1997 and 2009. The term ―apocalypse‖ is used by current theorists to refer to an uncovering or disclosure (most often a truth), and ―post-apocalypse‖ means to be after a disclosure, after a revelation, or after catastrophe. This study offers a double reading of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic discourses, and the dialectical tensions that are inherent in, and arise from, these discourses. Drawing on the current scholarship of children‘s and young adult literature this thesis uses post-structural theoretical perspectives to develop a framework and methodology for conducting a close textual analysis of exclusion, ‗un‘differentiation, prophecy, and simulacra of death. The combined theoretical perspectives and methodology offer new contributions to young adult fiction scholarship. This thesis finds that rather than conceiving adolescence as the endurance of a passing phase of a young person‘s life, there is a new trend emerging in young adult fiction that treats adolescence as a space of transformation essential to the survival of the young adult, and his/her community.
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Kimberley, Maree A. "Dirt Circus League : power and belonging in posthuman young adult fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2014. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/75428/6/Maree_Kimberley_Exegesis.pdf.
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This creative practice-led thesis consists of a creative work titled Dirt Circus League, which tells of a female teenaged medical intuitive who follows an enigmatic cult leader to his isolated home in Cape York, and an exegesis. The exegesis explores the representations and complexities of neuroscience and posthumanism in contemporary young adult fiction. The exegesis also discusses how the mechanics of storytelling changed the novel's original focus from one of neuroscience in relation to impacts and effects on teenage brains to the broader social concerns of posthumanism.
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Chen, Jou-An. "An exploration of nature and human development in young adult historical fantasy." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/282878.
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Traditional historical writing focuses on the cause and effect of human action, assuming that it is the historian's responsibility to recount the ebbs and flows of human progress. In the process of laying hold of the past as a narrative of human action, historical writing has developed the tendency to marginalise nature and undermine its power to influence the historical narrative. My investigation explores the fantastic in historical fantasy as a means of resisting historical writing's anthropocentrism. Historical fantasy uses fantastical elements to create counterfactual and alternative historical realities that have the potential to resist and undermine history's anthropocentric norm. My thesis examines four contemporary young adult historical fantasy trilogies that reimagine key turning points in history such as industrialisation, the American frontier, European imperialism, and World War I. They share the theme of retrieving and subverting anthropocentric discourses in the history of human development and thereby creating space for nature's presence and agency. My study finds that the fantastic is an effective means of subverting historical writing's anthropocentrism. But it also uncovers ambiguities and contradictions in historical fantasy's ecological revisionism, pointing to the idea that despite the fantastic's capacity for subversion, historical representations of nature cannot be separated from considerations of human identity and survival.
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Lash, Holly L. "Evaluating Young Adult Literature through Transactional Theory." Ohio Dominican University Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oduhonors1449497760.
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Shen, Fu-Yuan. "Narrative strategies in Robert Cormier's young adult novels." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2006. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1135277215.
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Voskuyl, Heather. "Plainsong or polyphony? : Australian award-winning novels of the 1990s for adolescent readers /." Electronic version, 2008. http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/dspace/handle/2100/923.
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Fenech, Giuliana. "Reconfiguring the reader : convergence and participation in modern young adult fantasy fiction." Thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/3681.
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This thesis explores digital-age literary and reading practices as they were influenced by participatory culture at the turn of the century. Participatory culture is analysed here through the work of Henry Jenkins, Hans Heino Ewers, Margaret Mackey and Katy Varnelis and is recognised as one in which individuals are socially connected to each other in an environment that offers support for creating and sharing interpretations and original works. It has relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic participation, and fosters the sense of community growing around people’s common interests and ideologies, as expressed through performative manifestations such as gaming and fandom. Because juvenile fantasy fiction generally, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series (1997-2007) specifically, were at the centre of significant developments in response to participatory culture, Rowling’s books are used as a case study on the basis of which changing practices of reading, writing and interpretation of story, principally by children and young people, are mapped and appraised. One aim of this thesis is to evaluate how far participatory culture has affected what it means to be a reader of a text that exists in multiple formats: how each version of the text constructs and addresses its readers/viewers/players/co-creators, and the dynamics and interdependence between the different versions. A second but related aim is to test the claims of new media theorists, including Janet Murray, Pierre Lévy and Marie-Laure Ryan, among others, to establish how far texts, readers and the processes of reading have in fact changed. Specifically, it looks at how far the promises of reader participation and co-creation have been fulfilled, especially within the genre of children’s literature.
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Clarke, Adrienne L. "Making literature meaningful, exploring cultural identity in realistic young adult multicultural fiction." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ31187.pdf.
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Reber, Lauren Lewis. "Negotiating Hope and Honesty: A Rhetorical Criticism of Young Adult Dystopian Fiction." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2005. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/284.
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Young adult dystopian fictions follow the patterns established by the classic adult dystopias such as George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, but not completely. Young adult dystopias tend to end happily, a departure from the nightmarish ends of Winston Smith and John Savage. Young adult authors resist hopelessness, even if the fictional world demands it.
Using a rhetorical approach established by Wayne Booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction and The Company We Keep, this thesis traces the reasons for the inclusion of hope and the strategies by which hope is created and maintained. Booth's rhetorical approach recognizes that a narrative is a relational act. At issue in this study is the consideration of what follows from viewing a narrative as a dynamic exchange between text, author and reader. Through a focus on rhetoric as identification, the responsibilities of both the author and the reader to a text are identified and discussed.
Three young adult novels, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, The Giver by Lois Lowry and Feed by M.T. Anderson will be analyzed as case studies. Together the analysis of these novels reveals that storytelling is an act of forging identifications and forming alliances. The reader becomes more than just a spectator of the author's rhetoric; the reader is a fully involved member of the interpretive and evaluative process.
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Thamm, Shane Peter. "My private pectus : the construction of masculinities in Australian young adult fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/17221/1/Shane_Thamm_Thesis.pdf.
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In recent decades, male protagonists in Australian realist fiction for young adult readers have increasingly become more others-regarding, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware. (John Stephens 2000; Perry Nodelman 2002). Psychologist Roger Horrocks (1995) claims these protagonists are less “tendentious and more realistic” than male protagonists of the past. These boys, despite not bearing the hallmarks of hegemonic masculinity, develop subjective agency and ultimately propose new ways for young men to construct their gender identity.
Using Phillip Gwynne’s (1998) Deadly Unna? and David Metzenthen’s (2000) Boys of Blood and Bone as case studies, and my own novel My Private Pectus as creative practice, I explore the construction and deconstruction of hegemonic, complicit, and alternative masculinities in Australian realist young adult fiction. I also analyse the construction of the New Age Boy—a label used by John Stephens for young male protagonists who develop positive self esteem because of their perceived gender differences compared to boys of the hegemonic masculine type.
By critiquing the manner in which masculinities are constructed in each case study, and supporting my critique through the literature of leading gender theorists, I question the seemingly homogenous manner in which the New Age Boy gains agency.
This question is further explored through my creative practice, as I put into dialogue a protagonist who also recognises his gender differences, but instead of proposing a new and better masculinity, he tries to adhere to and reap the rewards of hegemonic masculinity.
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Thamm, Shane Peter. "My private pectus : the construction of masculinities in Australian young adult fiction." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/17221/.
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In recent decades, male protagonists in Australian realist fiction for young adult readers have increasingly become more others-regarding, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware. (John Stephens 2000; Perry Nodelman 2002). Psychologist Roger Horrocks (1995) claims these protagonists are less “tendentious and more realistic” than male protagonists of the past. These boys, despite not bearing the hallmarks of hegemonic masculinity, develop subjective agency and ultimately propose new ways for young men to construct their gender identity.
Using Phillip Gwynne’s (1998) Deadly Unna? and David Metzenthen’s (2000) Boys of Blood and Bone as case studies, and my own novel My Private Pectus as creative practice, I explore the construction and deconstruction of hegemonic, complicit, and alternative masculinities in Australian realist young adult fiction. I also analyse the construction of the New Age Boy—a label used by John Stephens for young male protagonists who develop positive self esteem because of their perceived gender differences compared to boys of the hegemonic masculine type.
By critiquing the manner in which masculinities are constructed in each case study, and supporting my critique through the literature of leading gender theorists, I question the seemingly homogenous manner in which the New Age Boy gains agency.
This question is further explored through my creative practice, as I put into dialogue a protagonist who also recognises his gender differences, but instead of proposing a new and better masculinity, he tries to adhere to and reap the rewards of hegemonic masculinity.
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Nelson, Kyra McKinzie. "Lexical Trends in Young Adult Literature: A Corpus-Based Approach." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2016. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5805.
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Young Adult (YA) literature is widely read and published, yet few linguistic studies have researched it. With an increasing push to include YA texts in the classroom, it becomes necessary to thoroughly research the linguistic nature of the register. A 1-million-word corpus of YA fiction and non-fiction texts was created. Children's and adult fiction corpora were taken from a subset of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) database. The study noted differences in use of modals and pronouns among children's, YA, and adult registers. Previous research has suggested that children's literature focus more on spatial relations, while adult literature focuses on temporal relationships. However, the results of this study were unable to verify such relationships. The study also found that YA varied from children's and adult literature in regards to expletives, body part words, and familial relationships. The findings of this study suggest that YA is linguistically distinct from children's and adult. This indicates that future studies should focus more on target audience age. These results could also be applied to L1 reading pedagogy.
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Little, Cindy C. Johnsen Susan K. "An exploration of flow through the leisure pursuits of adult science fiction fans." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/4294.
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Reavis, E. "Adolescent Female Identity Development and Its Portrayal in Select Contemporary Young Adult Fiction." Thesis, School of Information and Library Science, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/1901/116.
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This study describes a content analysis of six contemporary young adult fiction novels. Adolescence is a time of great change, particularly for girls. It is during this time that female adolescents develop their voice and identity. As literature reflects the reader’s world, it also affects in part how female adolescents perceive their identity. Latent content analysis was used to code eight variables to determine if select contemporary young adult fiction novels appropriately describe the development of identity among adolescent females. All of the novels included in the study provided sufficient evidence of accurate portrayal of female adolescent identity development, by having examples of at least four out of eight variables, with most having examples of seven out of eight variables.
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Barton, Tina. "Young Adult Fiction, Feminist Pedagogy, and Convergence Culture: “Fangirling” as a Feminist Act." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/35672.
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JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga are widely recognized as three of the most successful recent young adult franchises. Although it may not seem so at first, each of these series has a preoccupation with feminist learning; each series’ author, whether explicitly or implicitly, addresses the extent to which their protagonists and fans can learn feminist lessons within, or from, these texts. Each protagonist does seem to undergo some kind of learning experience, and by measuring these against what feminist education scholars such as bell hooks call a feminist pedagogical model, I show that the reality of what is expressed in these texts does not necessarily align with the ways Hermione, Katniss, and Bella have been discussed by critics and fans. Further, I argue that despite their divergence from the didactic nature of earlier feminist young adult fiction, such as that written by Judy Blume, by making connections between young adult fiction and what fan theorist Henry Jenkins calls “convergence culture”, young readers of Rowling’s, Collins’s, and Meyer’s texts, through their critical and creative engagement with online fan activities, are actually participating in a kind of feminist education that interestingly embodies the aims of feminist pedagogy.
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Wilcox, Mary Elizabeth. "Canadian cultural identity, disillusionment, and isolation in contemporary realistic Canadian young adult fiction." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/23505.
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This study explores Canadian cultural identity in a selection of contemporary realistic dark-themed Canadian Young Adult (YA) fiction: The Lottery by Beth Goobie, The Space Between by Don Aker, The Beckoners by Carrie Mac, and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai. Using close reading, these adolescent novels are analyzed for the “bleak” themes of disillusionment and isolation. The themes are compared to corresponding trends in American YA literature, including self-reflection, ambiguous endings, the role of violence, absent parents, and the forms of the socially and psychologically abject characters. The novels are then analyzed using Canadian critical lenses adapted from John Ralston Saul’s theory of false myths and Daniel Coleman’s theory of wry civility. The critical lenses are also linked to Dennis Lee’s theory of inauthenticity and authenticity in Canadian culture and Northrop Frye’s definitions of unity and uniformity. The analysis concludes that the themes of isolation and disillusionment reflect deep engagement with authentic Canadian cultural theories.
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Carrington, Bridget. "Paths of virtue? : the development of fiction for young adult girls, 1750-1890." Thesis, University of Roehampton, 2009. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/paths-of-virtue(61cf9384-b233-4b71-b0e6-605b97a0ccf7).html.
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This study considers the early history of the development of fiction for Young Adult girls, an area which has received little attention. Its focus is on selected novels published between 1750 and 1890 which were read by unmarried girls in their teenage years and early twenties, or recommended for them by educationalists and critics. In the thesis I consider why girls read these novels, and how the texts address the themes identified by twentieth- and twenty-first-century theorists of children’s literature as identifiers of fiction for young adults. Primary evidence is drawn from reading records and critical surveys made between the mid-eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Introduction puts forward the argument for investigating the origins of fiction for Young Adult girls. Part I examines the theoretical framework for the study, Chapter 1 seeking to define Young Adults girls as a distinct identity within a wider pre-mature social grouping. Chapter 2 reviews critical theories particularly relevant to the thesis: reader response and cultural materialism. A discussion of book history is made in Chapter 3. Part II explores the texts themselves, justifying each choice by referencing the evidence of reading and/or recommendation contemporary with the novels. In Chapters 4 and 5 Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison and Burney’s Evelina are examined. The focus of Chapter 6 is the Gothic novel, identifying Radcliffe’s Romance of the Forest as a key text among the Young Adult female audience. Wood’s East Lynne and Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret, both immensely popular early examples of the sensation genre, are considered in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 investigates the largely forgotten work of Flora Shaw, with a close examination of her novel Colonel Cheswick’s Campaign. This chapter, together with the Conclusion, identifies the significant changes in female expectation apparent by 1890, changes which encouraged a new direction in fiction for girls.
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Robertson, Pixi. "Steel Riders : a novel for young adult readers and, An hermeneutical examination of Steel Riders." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2006. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/326.
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This project consists of two parts, Section One: Steel Riders, a novel for young adult readers, and Section Two: An Hermeneutical Examination q(Steel Riders. Section One: Steel Riders is a hybrid text based largely on the conventions of the detective novel. The protagonist of Steel Riders is a nineteen-year-old university student, Bella Buchanan, who returns to her home in a small industrial town in regional Western Australia. Bella is disillusioned with her life in the city, but finds that she has become alienated from the life of her peers in her home town of Sandon. This distancing of Bella allows her to observe the manners of the townspeople from the perspective of an outsider/insider. Bella's quiet life is interrupted by the arrival of her ex-boyfriend, Tallis McGuin, local Nyungah football hero who has recently joined the police force as an Aboriginal Police Aid. Bella's life is thrown into further turmoil when she begins work as a security guard at the local sand mining plant. It is here at the plant that Bella discovers a plot to conceal an important anthropological report relating to a local Nyungah burial ground. The resulting 'investigation' undertaken by Bella and Tallis into this situation results in their uncovering of local government corruption and a large, commercial marijuana plantation. This simple plot allows for a complex investigation of many issues and situations that confront young people living in regional and remote areas and at the same time celebrates the beauty of the Australian bush and the importance of community. Section Two: An Hermeneutical Examination of Steel Riders is a circular investigation of the journey to creativity which investigates the ways in which the lived experience feeds the creative impulse. The fictional town of Sandon, where Steel Riders is set, is based on the real-life coal-mining town of Collie in Western Australia where I have lived for a number of years. My experiences before I came to Collie and my "life-relation" (Bultmann, 1986, p. 243) to that town, my researches into the history of the town, and my friendships with the local residents, both Nyungah and Wadgela, are interrogated within the context of the Hermeneutic Circle and the work of Johann Martin Chladenius (1742/1986) and Johann Gustav Droysen (1858/J 986). Steel Riders features a number of Indigenous characters and I have contextualised my position as a white, female writer within a discourse of Aboriginalism as propounded by Bob Hodge and Vijay Mishra (1991 ).
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Harbour, Vanessa. "Problems of representation/representing sex, drugs and alcohol in contempoary British young adult fiction." Thesis, University of Winchester, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.548200.
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There is an ongoing debate into whether contentious issues, such as sex, drugs and alcohol, should be contained in young adult fiction (YAF). In this debate, the popular press most often represents the view that children, including young adults (YA), should be protected, and thereby remain innocent, thus characterising the inclusion of sensitive topics in children's fiction (including YAF) as an unacceptable assault on that innocence. Conversely, and as explored in this thesis, there are others, especially authors and academic critics (including myself) who suggest that fiction is an ideal place to explore such issues because of the nature of the vicarious experience it offers. This thesis is presented in two parts. The first is the creative aspect which is a YA novel entitled Ham & Jam. This is the story of four students on a school trip. They embark on a mission to save a young Afghan girl who had been trafficked and was being sold for sex. 'The novel developed out of the research undertaken for the second aspect of this thesis which is a critical exploration into how the contentious issues of sex, drugs and alcohol have been represented within YAF since 1996. Using Melvin Burgess's novel, Junk (1996) as a starting point, and his representation of sex, drugs and alcohol as a benchmark, a selection of British contemporary realist YAFfrom 1996 and for each subsequent year up to, and including, 2010 were compared critically and culturally from the dual perspective of writer and reader. The cultural research involved understanding society's perception of these contentious issues by examining current statistics and government reports. The results of which were used as a form of narrative system, enabling me to critically compare the representation of sex, drugs and alcohol in YAFwith this 'perceived' reality.
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Kimberley, Maree Ann. "Girl in the Shadows and resilience and coping strategies in contemporary young adult fiction." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/29384/1/Maree_Kimberley_Thesis.pdf.
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The novel manuscript Girl in the Shadows tells the story of two teenage girls whose friendship, safety and sanity are pushed to the limits when an unexplained phenomenon invades their lives. Sixteen-year-old Tash has everything a teenage girl could want: good looks, brains and freedom from her busy parents. But when she looks into her mirror, a stranger’s face stares back at her. Her best friend Mal believes it’s an evil spirit and enters the world of the supernatural to find answers. But spell books and ouija boards cannot fix a problem that comes from deep within the soul. It will take a journey to the edge of madness for Tash to face the truth inside her heart and see the evil that lurks in her home. And Mal’s love and courage to pull her back into life. The exegesis examines resilience and coping strategies in adolescence, in particular, the relationship of trauma to brain development in children and teenagers. It draws on recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology to provide a framework to examine the role of coping strategies in building resilience. Within this broader context, it analyses two works of contemporary young adult fiction, Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates and Sonya Hartnett’s Surrender, their use of the split persona as a coping mechanism within young adult fiction and the potential of young adult literature as a tool to help build resilience in teen readers.
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Kimberley, Maree Ann. "Girl in the Shadows and resilience and coping strategies in contemporary young adult fiction." Queensland University of Technology, 2009. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/29384/.
Full textAbstract:
The novel manuscript Girl in the Shadows tells the story of two teenage girls whose friendship, safety and sanity are pushed to the limits when an unexplained phenomenon invades their lives. Sixteen-year-old Tash has everything a teenage girl could want: good looks, brains and freedom from her busy parents. But when she looks into her mirror, a stranger’s face stares back at her. Her best friend Mal believes it’s an evil spirit and enters the world of the supernatural to find answers. But spell books and ouija boards cannot fix a problem that comes from deep within the soul. It will take a journey to the edge of madness for Tash to face the truth inside her heart and see the evil that lurks in her home. And Mal’s love and courage to pull her back into life. The exegesis examines resilience and coping strategies in adolescence, in particular, the relationship of trauma to brain development in children and teenagers. It draws on recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology to provide a framework to examine the role of coping strategies in building resilience. Within this broader context, it analyses two works of contemporary young adult fiction, Freaky Green Eyes by Joyce Carol Oates and Sonya Hartnett’s Surrender, their use of the split persona as a coping mechanism within young adult fiction and the potential of young adult literature as a tool to help build resilience in teen readers.
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Heuschele, Margaret, and n/a. "The Construction of Youth in Australian Young Adult Literature 1980-2000." University of Canberra. Creative Communication, 2007. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20081029.171132.
Full textAbstract:
Adolescence is an incredibly complex period of life. During this time young people are searching for and wanting to create their own unique identity, however being confronted with a plethora of roles and directions is challenging and confusing. These challenges are reflected in the vast array of young adult literature being presented to young people today. As a result young adult literature has the potential to function as scaffolding to assist teenagers in the struggles of adolescence by serving as an important source of information about the world and the people in it. Teenage novels also give young people the opportunity to try on different identities and vicariously experience consequences of actions while developing their own distinctive personality and character.
As this study reveals, the Australian young adult novel has undergone considerable developments, with 1989 serving as a milestone year in which writers and publishers turned in new directions. In general, Australian young adult novels have changed from books set predominately in rural areas, incorporating major themes of child abuse, death, friendship and survival with introverted characters aged between twelve and sixteen in the early 1980s to novels with urban settings, a large increase in books about crime, dating, drugs and mental health and sexually active, extroverted characters aged between fourteen and eighteen in the late 1990s.
To chart the progression of these changes and gain an understanding of the messages young adults receive from adolescent novels an evaluative framework was developed. The framework consists of two main sections. The first part applies to the work as a whole,
obtaining data about the novel such as plot, style, setting, temporal context, use of humour,
issues within the text and ending, while the second part collects information about character demographics including gender, age, occupational status, family type, sexual orientation, relationships with family and authority figures, personality traits and outlook for character. To qualitatively and quantitatively assess the construction of youth in Australian young adult literature a random selection of 20 per cent of Australian young adult books published in each year from 1980 to 2000 were analysed using the evaluative framework, with 186 novels being studied altogether.
During the 1990s in particular, Australian young adult literature was heavily criticised for being too bleak, too dark, presenting a picture of life that was all gloom and doom. This research resoundingly dismisses this argument by showing that rather than being a negative influence on the lives of young people, Australian books for young people present a comprehensive portrayal of youth. They probe the entire gamut of teenage experiences, both the good and the bad, providing a wide range of scenarios, roles, relationships and characters for young people to explore. Therefore Australian young adult literature provides an important source of information and support for the psycho-social development of young people during the formative years of adolescence.
This research is significant because it gives hard evidence to support the promotion of a representative selection of Australian young adult novels both in the classroom and in home, school and public libraries. By establishing the available range of contemporary Australian young adult literature through this study, young adult readers, teachers and librarians can be confident in the knowledge that appropriate titles are accessible which meet the needs and interests of young people. Consequently, the substantial amount of data gathered from this
study will considerably add to the knowledge and understanding ofAustralian young adult novels to date and provide an excellent starting point for further research in the future.
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Wedwick, Linda Crumpler Thomas P. "The socialization of a reader the literary treatment of fatness in adolescent fiction /." Normal, Ill. : Illinois State University, 2005. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=0&did=1225101201&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=2&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1176734714&clientId=43838.
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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005.Title from title page screen, viewed on April 16, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Thomas P. Crumpler (chair), R. Kay Moss, Gary Weilbacher, Amelia Adkins, Sally Parry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-168) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Lu, Catherine Lu. "Empowering Teens Beyond the Page: The Evolution of Journalistic Coverage of the Young Adult Fiction Genre." Ohio University Honors Tutorial College / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ouhonors1526054196263185.
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Cordier, Nicole M. "Aliens in our Own Bodies; Representations of Epilepsy in Young Adult Literature." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1571264824902148.
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Hehir, Sylvia. "Writing characters from under-represented communities : a perspective from an emerging young adult fiction writer." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30716/.
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The category of young adult (YA) fiction encompasses a wide range of genres; but despite this generic diversity, it has so far failed to represent the full range of communities that make up contemporary British society. Discussions are ongoing between professionals in the publishing industry and campaigning individuals and organisations who are aiming to redress this imbalance. Writers making new work are in a position to help effect a change, but acknowledging and responding to the call for inclusion can be far from straightforward, with questions being raised such as: ‘how far can a writer stray from their own lived experience?’ and ‘how can a writer avoid tokenism or cultural appropriation when writing for inclusion?’ This thesis consists of a new YA contemporary novel, Sea Change, and an accompanying critical essay, which reflects on the challenges I encountered while aiming to write for inclusion. Set in the Scottish Highlands, Sea Change is a contemporary YA crime novel, in which the world of the sixteen-year-old protagonist, Alex, is thrown into turmoil when he discovers a dead body next to his fishing boat. The decisions Alex makes following this discovery set in motion the plot of the story. The narrative, as it unfolds, facilitates the exploration of themes frequently associated with adolescence, such as friendship, risk-taking and the maturation into an adult identity, along with themes specifically linked to Alex’s status as a member of marginalised communities because of his sexuality and social class, such as prejudice, acute stress brought on by economic pressure, and low self-esteem. This thesis, then, reviews the opinions and recommendations being expressed by campaigners for greater diversity, and exposes the uncertainties and challenges a writer faces when aiming to write for inclusion.
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Ford, Peggy Kathleen Ollar. "Authors, Protagonists, and Moral Decision Making in Contemporary Young Adult Realistic Fiction: a Content Analysis." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1999. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc278823/.
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The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a difference in the way male and female authors of contemporary realistic fiction for young adults portray decision making by their male or female protagonists. Questions asked in the study were: (1) Do female writers of contemporary young adult realistic fiction employ an ethic of justice or an ethic of care for male protagonists involved in moral decision making? (2) Do female writers of contemporary young adult realistic fiction employ an ethic of justice or an ethic of care for female protagonists involved in moral decision making? (3) Do male writers of contemporary young adult realistic fiction employ an ethic of justice or an ethic of care for male protagonists involved in moral decision making? and (4) Do male writers of contemporary young adult realistic fiction employ an ethic of justice or an ethic of care for female protagonists involved in moral decision making? Content analysis was used as the method of collecting data. The sample consisted of 194 novels written from 1989 to 1998, 53 of which contained a moral dilemma. A discussion of the novels included examples of moral dilemmas, alternative solutions, dilemma resolutions, and resolutions based upon care or justice. Analysis of the data revealed: (1) Female writers employ an ethic of care and an ethic of justice for male protagonists involved in moral decision making. (2) Female writers prefer an ethic of care for female protagonists involved in moral decision making. (3) Male writers prefer an ethic of justice for male protagonists involved in moral decision making. (4) Male writers prefer an ethic of justice for female protagonists involved in moral decision making.
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Williams, Jenna Elizabeth. "A changing didacticism : the development of South African young adult fiction from 1985 to 2006." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1004293.
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This thesis endeavours to establish how political transformation in South Africa has impacted on the didactic function of locally produced young adult fiction between the years of 1985 and 2006. To this end, a selection of young adult novels and short stories are examined in relation to the time period during which they were written or are set, namely the final years of apartheid (from 1985 to the early 1990s), the period of transition from apartheid to democracy (approximately 1991 to 1997), and the early years of the twenty-first century (2000 to 2006). Chapter One provides a brief overview of publishing for the juvenile market in South Africa over the last century, noting how significant historical and political events affected both the publishing industry itself and the content of children's and young adult literature. This chapter also adumbrates the theoretical foundations of the study. The second chapter examines a selection of texts either written or set during the final years of the apartheid regime. This chapter establishes how authors during this period challenged notions of racial inequality and undermined the policies of the apartheid government, with varying degrees of success. The authors' methods in encouraging their (predominantly white) readers to question apartheid ideology are also interrogated. Those novels written after, but set during, the apartheid era are examined with the aim of determining their authors' didactic objectives in revisiting this period in their novels. Chapter Three explores how authors writing during the transition period aimed to encourage readers to participate in the building of a 'rainbow nation,' by portraying idealised modes of relating to the racial 'other.' While some of the authors examined in this chapter are optimistic, and even naïve, in their celebration of a newly established democracy, others are more cautious in suggesting that decades of oppression and separation can so easily be overcome. Chapter Four demonstrates how the freedoms afforded by a democratic society have prompted young adult authors to explore the possibilities of adapting the sub-genre of the teenage problem novel to suit a distinctly South African context. While some of these texts are not overtly didactic in nature, they confront the unique issues faced by a generation of South African teenagers raised in a democratic society, and in some cases challenge readers to reconsider their approach to such issues.
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Siddall, Jane. "Mother what art thou? : a study of the depiction of mother figures in recent Australian and New Zealand fiction for teenagers." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2003. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1290.
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This thesis is a study of the representations of mothers and mother figures as found in five contemporary (published between 1984 and 1999) novels for teenagers. The focus is on western constructions of motherhood, as both normalising and universalising discourses. Utilising a variety of critical approaches this thesis examines the socio-cultural issues present in the novels in conjunction with western models of maternity. This study argues the category of mother is interdependent upon the category of child. As children's literature often focuses on the development of the child, the mother figures are often read as the “unconscious” of the texts. I examine the extent to which the mother figures are given a "subject-in-processness" (Lucas, 1998, p.39) subjectivity. The texts considered are The Changeover(First published in 1984) by Margaret Mahy; Greylands (1997) by lsobelle Carmody; Speaking to Miranda (First published in 1990) by Caroline Macdonald: Touching earth lightly (1996) by Margo Lanagan and Closed, Stanger(1999) by Kate De Goldi. In part, the selection of the texts has been based upon the various and multifaceted relationships between the mothers and the children. I use the Mahy text as a means to establish selected mother and, to a lesser degree, child characteristics. Some comparisons are made with this sole text of the 19805, in order to ascertain if there has been an evolution in the articulation of mother, figures in the 1990s. This study does not adopt a survey approach nor does it claim that the five novels present all the categories of "mother". Rather it addresses categories such as, mother as nurturer, as sexual being and, importantly, the dichotomy of the “good/bad" mother. Within western discourses of maternity, this latter category is still used as a model by which to label women who mother. This study considers the stability of this binary within the novels. This thesis relies upon close reading of the primary texts. The emphasis is on critical approaches that draw attention to contexts, with particular emphasis on the socio-cultural issues present in each particular novel. My readings suggest that there is the possibility for engagement with the texts' social content/comment, in conjunction with the representations of western models of maternity. I draw from a variety of motherhood discourses and theoretical approaches, including amongst others, the work of Luce Irigaray, HeIene Cixous, Judith Hennan, Martha Fineman, Rose Lucas, and Robyn McCallum.