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Real World Issues in Young Adult Fiction
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation (Electronic Copy Not Available)
Keywords
Young adult fiction;
Abstract
Scott Mendelson, in a review for the movie The Hate U Give titled “Review: ‘The Hate U Give’ Is An Oscar–Worthy Masterpiece,” spends the bulk of his essay attacking the young adult fantasy genre for not facing politics through anything except “behind metaphor or comforting illusion.” He writes: “The Hate U Give is, at its core, a YA fantasy melodrama stripped of fantasy and focused on the modern-day racial strife and class struggle that the likes of Harry Potter, Divergent and The Hunger Games merely discussed in metaphorical terms.” Instead of comparing and backing up his claim, Mendelson just uses the movie version of The Hate U Give as his sole evidence with no look at the other side of the argument. This paper shows that his claim is inaccurate. Young adult fantasy does discuss race and class issues just as plainly as non-fantastic literature does. Furthermore, fantasy sometimes does a better job of talking about these issues because it reaches an audience that may not otherwise pick up a book to read, or that may not be interested in the real life issues, but are actually reading about them even if they do not realize it. I use The Black Witch by Laurie Forest to illustrate how young adult fantasy handles these issues.
Start Date
3-4-2019 1:00 PM
End Date
3-4-2019 4:00 PM
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Brooke Wonders
Department
Department of Languages and Literatures
Copyright
©2019 Randi Smith
File Format
application/pdf
Embargo Date
4-17-2019
Real World Issues in Young Adult Fiction
Scott Mendelson, in a review for the movie The Hate U Give titled “Review: ‘The Hate U Give’ Is An Oscar–Worthy Masterpiece,” spends the bulk of his essay attacking the young adult fantasy genre for not facing politics through anything except “behind metaphor or comforting illusion.” He writes: “The Hate U Give is, at its core, a YA fantasy melodrama stripped of fantasy and focused on the modern-day racial strife and class struggle that the likes of Harry Potter, Divergent and The Hunger Games merely discussed in metaphorical terms.” Instead of comparing and backing up his claim, Mendelson just uses the movie version of The Hate U Give as his sole evidence with no look at the other side of the argument. This paper shows that his claim is inaccurate. Young adult fantasy does discuss race and class issues just as plainly as non-fantastic literature does. Furthermore, fantasy sometimes does a better job of talking about these issues because it reaches an audience that may not otherwise pick up a book to read, or that may not be interested in the real life issues, but are actually reading about them even if they do not realize it. I use The Black Witch by Laurie Forest to illustrate how young adult fantasy handles these issues.
