Adolescent Literature Also called Young Adult (YA) Literature And the Panopticon

Adolescence G Stanley Hall (1904) coined the term. It became a concept when young people lost their function in society. ◦ Not employed ◦ Not helping family’s livelihood ◦ Laws protecting children (now age is 16 for work?) ◦ Suddenly youths of this age had a no purpose. Adolescence is a period of transition. It’s an in-between time. Not child, not adult. Something else. (Liminal.) For Freud and psychoanalysis, adolescence is all about sexuality and puberty. For Piaget, the biggest issue is cognitive development and Intellectual ability.

Qualities of the adolescent Havinghurst is a cognitive psychologist who has done foundational research on adolescence. He says adolescents Need to adjust to a new physical self. Have new intellectual abilities (reasoning, and-self consciously observant). Must meet increased demands at school and socially. Have expanded verbal skills. Whole new ways of talking. Establish of an independent identity (separate from parents). ◦ Emotional independence from parents ◦ Develop stable peer relationships ◦ Manage sexuality ◦ Determine personal value system ◦ Develop ability to control impulses ◦ Develop a sense of civic engagement If adolescents don’t resolve these issues, they will have trouble in adulthood (and most people don’t, so in later life they do).

Characteristics of adolescent lit. Tends to have less positive tone than literature for younger children. Almost always includes conflict with parent(s). Always involves young people learning about the social institutions they live in. ◦ Protagonist learns his/her place in societal power structures. ◦ By the end, they know what power is and isn’t. More physical or corporeal than ChLit. ◦ Death in ChLit vs. Mortality in YA. Sexuality. Sex and death are two sides of the same coin. YA more open and direct bout sex.

Adolescent Lit in a nutshell Adolescent characters in adolescent literature learn to understand themselves in relation to ◦ Death ◦ Sex ◦ Institutions (school, church, government, work places, press)  Trites, Disturbing the Universe, Power and Repression in Adolescent Fiction. Children’s LitAdolescent Lit Learn to accept your position where you are. Hopeful. Emphasis on solutions. Tends to portray the world as better than it really is. Learn to find your place within the power relationships around you Bleak (or not necessarily hopeful) Emphasis on problems. Strong doses of reality. Can overemphasize the negative.

Bildungsroman Bildungsroman: ("novel of education" or "novel of formation”) is a novel which traces the spiritual, moral, psychological, or social development and growth of the main character from (usually) childhood to maturity. A Bildungsroman is, most generally, the story of a single individual's growth and development within the context of a defined social order. The growth process, at its roots a quest story, has been described as both "an apprenticeship to life" and a "search for meaningful existence within society." Sometimes called “Coming of Age” stories, though this term is more general. Entiwicklungsroman is a story with limited growth.

The Panopticon Theory of Surveillance The Panopticon was proposed as a model prison by Jeremy Bentham a British philosopher and theorist in 1785 The Panopticon ("all-seeing") would be a round-the-clock surveillance machine. Its design ensured that no prisoner could ever see the 'inspector' who conducted surveillance from the privileged central location that allows him to see all prisoners all the time. The prisoner could never know when he was being watched This mental uncertainty proves to be a crucial instrument of discipline (and maintaining social order).

Panopticon and Adolescence I’m being watched. Have you ever, or do you ever feel like everyone is looking at you? Is it ever true? Why might you feel this way? How does society promote this idea in order to maintain control? Michel Foucault popularized the idea in his book Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison The perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary. What matters is the people think they are being observed, so they act as if they are. When this is happening, you can say, “The panopticon is at work.”

Panopticon & Adolescent Lit. Adolescents seem to be particularly susceptible to implications that they are being watched. Society wants young people to behave correctly. Adolescents may be much more powerful than they realize. They must be kept under control. Adolescent literature often reinforces panopticonic ideas by representing sanctioned ideas of actions and results.

What about our four books? Number the Stars Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963 Ramona the Pest The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian