Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction (Children's Literature Association Series) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1496827147 ISBN 13: 9781496827142

Publisher: University Press of Mississippi, 2020

Synopsis

Contributions by Megan Brown, Jill Coste, Sara K. Day, Rachel Dean-Ruzicka, Rebekah Fitzsimmons, Amber Gray, Roxanne Harde, Tom Jesse, Heidi Jones, Kaylee Jangula Mootz, Leah Phillips, Rachel L. Rickard Rebellino, S. R. Toliver, Jason Vanfosson, Sarah E. Whitney, and Casey Alane Wilson

While critical and popular attention afforded to twenty-first-century young adult literature has exponentially increased in recent years, classroom materials and scholarship have remained static in focus and slight in scope. Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hate U Give overwhelm conversations among scholars and critics―but these are far from the only texts in need of analysis.

Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction offers a necessary remedy to this limiting perspective, bringing together essays about the many subgenres, themes, and character types that have until now been overlooked. The collection tackles a diverse range of topics―modern updates to the marriage plot; fairy tale retellings in dystopian settings; stories of extrajudicial police killings and racial justice. The approaches are united, though, by a commitment to exploring the large-scale generic and theoretical structures at work in each set of texts.

As a collection, Beyond the Blockbusters is an exciting entryway into a field that continues to grow and change even as its works captivate massive audiences. It will prove a crucial addition to the library of any scholar or instructor of young adult literature.

About this title

About the Authors

Rebekah Fitzsimmons is assistant teaching professor of professional communication in the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Previously, she was assistant director of the Writing and Communication Program and a Marion L. Brittain Fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Florida with a concentration in children’s and young adult literature and culture; she also earned a certificate in digital pedagogy from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Casey Alane Wilson is assistant professor of English at Francis Marion University. A former Marion L. Brittain Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Writing and Communication Program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, she completed her MA and PhD at the University of Florida in children’s literature and digital media. Her research focuses on trends in young adult literature, social media, and the ways the two interact. She is also author of young adult fiction under the name Casey Alane.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1496827147
• ISBN 13: 9781496827142
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 254
• Editor: Fitzsimmons Rebekah, Wilson Casey Alane