ABSTRACT
Young adult (YA) literature has a long tradition as a subcategory within children’s literature, and its development, particularly in terms of British and American publications for teenagers, is well documented.1 As JA Appleyard has indicated in Becoming A Reader (1990), our current understanding of adolescence and its representation in fi ction is still greatly infl uenced by the work of Stanley Hall and Erik Erikson; the teenage years are seen as a time of struggle to mature as an adult, to develop independence, to challenge authority, to form an identity, and to relate to peers. It is a time of ‘moodiness and ambivalence, ambition and drive, rebellion and crisis’ (Appleyard 1990, 96). Kimberley Reynolds draws upon such work and argues that YA literature features ‘characters caught up in the turbulent and complex emotions associated with the teenage years; that it is addressed to readers presumed to be in this state of turmoil and that it often acknowledges a division between an “authentic” inner self and a “false” public self ’ (2007 , 138-139). These traits can be found in many groundbreaking YA texts, which are often identifi ed as part of a canon of YA fi ction, such as JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye (1951), Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War (1974), Judy Blume’s Forever (1975), and Aidan Chambers’ Dance on My Grave (1982).
