The e W ed Representation in YA Literature Inodon - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The e W ed

Representation in YA Literature

Inodon & Iceke

Inodon

❖ Name ❖ Pronouns ❖ Major

Iceke

❖ What book character would you want to spend a day with?

Bef We t te...

❖ Safe Space ❖ Use “I” Statements ❖ Respectful Dialogue ➢ Critique ideas, not people ➢ Challenge respectfully ➢ Speak from your own experiences

Inodon T oc

❖ Term “Young Adult” first introduced in the 1960s and described the 12-18 age range ❖ The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is considered the first book written and published for young adults ❖ Brief history of mainstream YA

Defin & The

❖ Representation: the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way ❖ Diversity: a range of different things; a point of difference ❖ Social Norms: Unwritten ways of how people should behave, act, and show up in a space ❖ Intersectionality: systems of

• ppression (racism, sexism,

classism, etc.) are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another

❖ MC: main character

Pre-Disso Qti

❖ In what ways do you see literature in general as perpetuating norms? ❖ Can you think of any Young Adult characters that deviate from social norms?

Bri to f Resti YA

❖ White MCs are the norm ❖ Western beauty standards & body weight ➢ Forever… by Judy Blume. ❖ White savior narrative ❖ LGBTQ characters used as plot devices ❖ Base level view of of class systems were troubled (The Outsiders), it was very base level and didn’t question why such power systems and systemic inequities exist. ❖ So basically - it has been very white, cisgendered, heterosexual, middle class, and able-bodied.

A Lit Frer I Te te

❖ Looking at some popular examples… ➢ The Hunger Games ➢ Divergent ➢ Twilight ❖ Some of these books are making strides in the right direction, but it’s still necessary to call out their misgivings as well.

How e W me?

❖ A study in 2017 revealed a 15% increase (10% to 25+%) in YA books following more representative leads from 2013 to 2016 ❖ However, Black, Native, and Latinx authors only wrote SIX percent of YA books published in 2016 combined. ❖ The genre still lacks intersectionality. For example, you may have a black MC

• r a queer MC, but rarely a black and queer MC.

❖ Corinne Duyvis created #OwnVoices - to promote diverse and representative works written by folks that have that identity. ❖ It seems that while more LGBTQ literature is being published, lesbian and gay identities are the main ones being represented, leaving

• ut many other sexualities and genders.

Wha te Osl?

❖ The majority of the publishing industry is overwhelming white, straight, able-bodied, and cisgendered. ❖ Diverse books are sometimes viewed as niche. ❖ Critics and gatekeepers have been criticized by authors for neglecting diverse books, especially those with more explicit feminist overtones. ❖ While there are some initiatives being implemented, writer and publisher Margaret Busby argues that mainstream publishing is too “institutionalized in its biases” to be fixed with a few new authors or initiatives; they alone cannot fix the problem. ❖ If authors of color are getting published, publishers expect them to write solely about their identity category, no matter what genre they write.

Progress is slowly being made, but it’s not enough.

Wh o It Mar?

❖ There is still a mindset that characters with marginalized identities aren’t authentic unless they’re constantly dealing with pain and abuse. These stories are important and real, but they aren’t the only stories. People of color, disabled people, LGBTQ people fall in love, play sports, and have awkward high school years too. ❖ For many people, what makes a book most enjoyable is being able to identify with a character in some way. Everyone deserves books where their identity and culture are present. ❖ Authors writing within their experiences is vital to help prevent the perpetuation

• f stereotypes and harmful images. It’s important to let folks tell their authentic

stories without having their voices and stories stripped from them.

Wh o It Mar?

❖ Having more representation is great, but we also need to interrogate why it matters in terms of the social structure. ❖ These stories are being shaped in order to maintain and perpetuate systems

• f power that will affect folks in a multitude of ways.

➢ Denial of basic resources ➢ Denial of their full humanity ➢ Denial of access to different spaces and opportunities ❖ For example, research shows that negative media representation (fiction, news, tv shows) of black men leads to lower life expectancies. ❖ A lack of representation or negative representation leads to a lack of acknowledgement of systemic oppression and its simultaneous perpetuation.

“Diversity isn’t

• important. Diversity

is reality … Let’s stop erasing that.”

Malinda Lo, author & co-founder of We Need Diverse Books

Disso Qti

❖ What do you think about the lack of representation in YA? ❖ What do you think we, as consumers, can do to promote representation in YA? ❖ Have you ever felt negatively impacted by the way some of your identities were portrayed in the media? ❖ In what ways do you see a lack

• f representation in

entertainment affecting people’s everyday lives?

Som A ok Rmeto

❖ More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera ❖ The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas ❖ Wonder by R.J. Palacio ❖ To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han ❖ Turtles All The Way Down by John Green ❖ The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton ❖ From Twinkle With Love by Sandhya Menon ❖ Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi ❖ Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli ❖ After The Fall by Kate Hart ❖ If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo ❖ The Diviners by Libba Bray

Refce

“A Brief History of Young Adult Books .” Epic Reads, HarperCollins Publishers, 19 Feb. 2015, www.epicreads.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-young-adult-books/. Akbar, Arifa. “Diversity in Publishing – Still Hideously Middle-Class and White?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Dec. 2017, www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/09/diversity-publishing-new-faces. Banks, William P. “Literacy, Sexuality, and the Value(s) of Queer Young Adult Literatures.” The English Journal, vol. 98, no. 4, 2009, pp. 33–36. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40503258. Jarema, Kerri. “Why Feminism In YA Fantasy Is So Important.” Bustle, 7 Feb. 2017, www.bustle.com/p/why-feminism-in-young-adult-fantasy-is-so-essential-according-to-two-authors-35885. Jarema, Kerri. “Why We Need Diverse YA Books That Represent Marginalized Characters In All Of Their Complex, Quirky Glory.” Bustle, Bustle, 31 Jan. 2018, www.bustle.com/p/why-we-need-diverse-ya-books-that-represent-marginalized-characters-in-all-of-their-complex-quirky-glory-8003404. Kaplan, Jeffrey. "Perception and Reality: Examining the Representations of Adolescents in Young Adult Fiction." ALAN Review, vol. 36, no. 1, 2008, pp. 42-49. ProQuest, https://proxying.lib.ncsu.edu/index.php/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/212194389?accountid=12725. Sullivan, Kate. “Why Diversity in Fiction Matters.” TCK Publishing, TCK Publishing, 24 Aug. 2018, www.tckpublishing.com/why-diverse-fiction-matters/. Whaley, Kayla. “Why We Need Diverse Authors in Children's Literature.” Brightly, Penguin Random House, www.readbrightly.com/why-we-need-diverse-authors-in-kids-ya-lit/. Younger, Beth. “Pleasure, Pain, and the Power of Being Thin: Female Sexuality in Young Adult Literature.” NWSA Journal, vol. 15, no. 2, 2003,

• pp. 45–56. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4316970.