A wonderfully clich\u00e9d way to begin this analysis of YA literature is to ask the most basic question: What is YA? Jen Doll\u2019s article, aptly titled \u201cWhat Does Young Adult Mean?\u201d<\/i> answers this question with spot-on accuracy, concluding that it has no technical definition. Despite initially claiming that it is a literary category aimed at \u2018young adults\u2019, specifically between the ages of 12- 18, seeing that about 55% of all YA novel buyers are 18 or older, this definition doesn\u2019t seem to hold its own in the real world. Other analysts attempt to answer this question with the claim that these works are characterized by a teenage protagonist, rendering classic YA novels such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hitchhiker\u2019s Guide, misfits in this category. Yet others have attempted to identify in them, a common theme of \u2018struggle\u2019. This seems to be the most ridiculous notion of all, considering that Tolstoy and Dickens, champions of \u2018struggle\u2019 literature, sure as hell aren\u2019t young adult authors. Very clearly, YA lit is not a specified genre, far more a marketing gimmick designed to pull in readers of a certain age group, as well as those rebellious enough to want to break out of this ageist reading system. After all, what do the very real struggles of the cancer harangued lovers in TFIOS have to do with the fantasy world of vampires and werewolves sketched so vividly in the Twilight series? This disjunction between the term YA and its actual characterization, to me, suggests something very obvious: YA has, over time, become a term used by elitist critics to pick flaws in books they could not connect with, suggesting that they are too \u2018simplified, inaccessible, immature\u2019 for adults with \u2018refined\u2019 tastes. This is absurd. When there is no clear definition of the genre itself, on what basis are people looked down upon for reading it? Do only black people read black authors? Should only women read books with female protagonists? Ageism in literature is equally demeaning, and the sheer number of adults who read YA novels should prove that it is just too broad a set of books to be tied down to a certain \u2018kind of people\u2019.<\/p>\n
Works cited:<\/p>\n
Doll, Jen. “What Does ‘Young Adult’ Mean?”\u00a0The Wire<\/i>. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.<\/p>\n
“New Study: 55% of YA Books Bought by Adults.”\u00a0PublishersWeekly.com<\/i>. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.<\/p>\n
Lee, Harper.\u00a0To Kill a Mockingbird<\/i>. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. Print.<\/p>\n
Adams, Douglas.\u00a0The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy<\/i>. New York: Harmony, 1980. Print.<\/p>\n
Green, John.\u00a0The Fault in Our Stars<\/i>. Print.<\/p>\n
Meyer, Stephenie.\u00a0Twilight<\/i>. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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