Push – a prototype of displaced fiction: breaking the circle of silence (YA Literature).

Young adults in literature; Protagonists (Persons); Pregnant women; Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (Film); Wolff, Virginia Euwer

Young adult (YA) literature will typically have a young adult protagonist playing out themes that tackle ideas and transitions that young adults might experience. Thrusting a YA protagonist into the narrative is not enough for a guarded publishing industry; this paper finds example in Sapphire's novelPush(Sapphire. 1998. London: Vintage), told from the perspective of an illiterate teen, and not published as a teen novel. Ideally, young adults – likePush’s Precious, who is pregnant for the second time with her father's child – experience conflicting feelings, and you would think a writer could write in any genre and target them. Uncensored, this author could travel on themes for young adults, particularly on the premise that if it happens to a young adult, some young adult out there will identify with it, then it is writable as a YA novel. This paper will privilege subject matter or theme, with an additional prong on narrative style. We explore the question: ‘In what ways can adult themes be adapted to be productive elements of young adult fiction?’ The discussion aims to find answers by considering the writer as a champion of change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]