Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers

Description

Winner of the Children’s Literature Association Edited Book Award From the jaded, wired teenagers of M.T. Anderson's Feed to the spirited young rebels of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, the protagonists of Young Adult dystopias are introducing a new generation of readers to the pleasures and challenges of dystopian imaginings. As the dark universes of YA dystopias continue to flood the market,Contemporary Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: Brave New Teenagers offers a critical evaluation of the literary and political potentials of this widespread publishing phenomenon. With its capacity to frighten and warn, dystopian writing powerfully engages with our pressing global concerns: liberty and self-determination, environmental destruction and looming catastrophe, questions of identity and justice, and the increasingly fragile boundaries between technology and the self. When directed at young readers, these dystopian warnings are distilled into exciting adventures with gripping plots and accessible messages that may have the potential to motivate a generation on the cusp of adulthood. This collection enacts a lively debate about the goals and efficacy of YA dystopias, with three major areas of contention: do these texts reinscribe an old didacticism or offer an exciting new frontier in children's literature? Do their political critiques represent conservative or radical ideologies? And finally, are these novels high-minded attempts to educate the young or simply bids to cash in on a formula for commercial success? This collection represents a prismatic and evolving understanding of the genre, illuminating its relevance to children's literature and our wider culture.   Cover Title Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Series Editor’s Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Part I: Freedom and Constraint: Adolescent Liberty and Self-Determination Chapter 1 What Faction Are You In? The Pleasure of Being Sorted in Veronica Roth’s Divergent Chapter 2 Coming of Age in Dystopia: Reading Genre in Holly Black’s Curse Workers Series Chapter 3 Embodying the Postmetropolis in Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron and Sapphique Part II: Society and Environment: Building a Better World Chapter 4 Hope in Dark Times: Climate Change and the World Risk Society in Saci Lloyd’s The Carbon Diaries 2015 and 2017 Chapter 5 Educating Desire, Choosing Justice? Susan Beth Pfeffer’s Last Survivors Series and Julie Bertagna’s Exodus Chapter 6 On the Brink: The Role of Young Adult Culture in Environmental Degradation Part III: Radical or Conservative? Polemics of the Future Chapter 7 “The Dandelion in the Spring”: Utopia as Romance in Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games Trilogy Chapter 8 The Future Is Pale: Race in Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Novels Chapter 9 Technology and Models of Literacy in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction Part IV: Biotechnologies of the Self: Humanity in a Posthuman Age Chapter 10 Dystopian Sacrifice, Scapegoats, and Neal Shusterman’s Unwind Chapter 11 The Soul of the Clone: Coming of Age as a Posthuman in Nancy Farmer’s The House of the Scorpion Chapter 12 Parables for the Postmodern, Post-9/11, and Posthuman World: Carrie Ryan’s Forest of Hands and Teeth Books, M.T. Anderson’s Feed, and Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox Contributors Index