The Young Adult Genre

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Young adult literature is a consistently evolving genre that continues to push controversial boundaries and trends. The term “young adult” was first coined in the 1960s and was defined as “realistic fiction that was set in the real contemporary world and addressed problems, issues, and life circumstances of interest to young readers aged approximately twelve to eighteen” (Cart). Young adult readers of the past read publications such as Zindel’s The Pigman (1968) and Cormier’s The Chocolate War (1974), with the 1960s and 1970s being more about coming of age and the journey to adulthood, while today’s novels highlight the journey itself. With the introduction of the Internet and advances in technology and modern science, young adult literature has also developed as teenagers redefine themselves and their role in society (Avoli-Miller). Contemporary young adult literature has evolved over the past sixty years from novels such as The Outsiders to The Hunger Games, which offers young adult readers a window through which they can better examine their lives and the world around them as opposed to the adolescent problem novel in which complicated issues are often portrayed in a black-and-white manner.
The young adult genre began post-World War II at a time when adolescents became recognized as a distinct group: teenagers. Many beginning young adult novels focus on post-war teenage phenomena such as drinking, smoking, and premarital sex, which emphasize the newfound defiance and rebellion of early young adult protagonists. J.D. Salinger’s 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye, drew the attention of 1950s young adults with a teenage storyline not yet represented in literature. The novel’s mature content and teenage angst amongst an era again...

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...he novels of today, they still have a profound impact on the way young adult literature has evolved and how today’s literature has been shaped. The once taboo topics of the past, such as sex and drugs, are now available to teens to read about and to question as they attempt to discover their true identities. Questions such as “Who am I?” and “What is my place in the world?” often resonate through young and new adult novels and “give students the opportunity to explore new ideas and philosophies” (Avoli-Miller). These novels provide learning moments for young adults as they relate to characters and situations. The challenges of love, rejection, bullying, family, coming of age, and other pivotal teenage moments displayed in modern literature give a voice to today’s youth instead of asking them to suffer in silence like many protagonists of the past’s problem novels.

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