ABSTRACT
Young adult dystopian novels offer different models of literacy, from illiteracy to multiple versions of literate capabilities. A common theme of this genre is that in the future, due to significant technological advances, many people have lost traditional forms of literacy like writing by hand. This fear that technology is causing illiteracy is widespread in contemporary society today, where teachers, parents, popular essayists, and others complain about the current generation's addiction to texting and reluctance to read. It is perhaps unsurprising, then, that these fears should emerge in texts aimed at young adults themselves. Some texts present unfavorable images of illiterate and uncaring teens, such as in M.T. Anderson's Feed (2002), where young adults communicate with technology implanted in their brains and have largely lost the ability to speak aloud. Other texts present traditional literacies as a means of personal agency and freedom amidst controlling societies facilitated by technology, as in Ally Condie's Matched (2010), where reading illegal poetry and learning to write by hand are means of rebellion, and Scott Westerfeld's Uglies (2005), where young adults use both handwriting and technological advances to subvert the authorities. Such texts offer productive presentations of literacy, but texts that demonstrate young adults excelling in multiple kinds of literacies, such as digital literacies, offer even more productive and nuanced representations of young adults exerting agency and autonomy amidst totalitarian societies. Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (2008), for instance, shows a young adult empowered by his capable and crafty technological know-how. This chapter analyzes models of literacy in these four young adult 146dystopian novels in order to explore tensions among technology, old forms of literacy, new forms of literacy, and the possibilities those models offer. Texts that present young adults who engage in multiple forms of literacy to enact change offer the most productive ways of exploring technology's effect on literacy with young adults.
