Jeunesse - Young People, Texts, Cultures (E-Journal)
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Representations of Happiness in Comedic Young Adult Fiction: Happy Are the Wretched
No full textCritical scholarship on happiness provides a way to read comedic young adult fiction that foregrounds and investigates representations of happiness. This paper draws on the work of Sara Ahmed and Lauren Berlant in order to explore the ways in which comedy interrogates social constructions of happiness that serve to exclude or to constrain young people who are portrayed as outsiders. The result is a narrative representation of individual subjectivity and of society that examines the promise of happiness and the fantasy of normative happiness scripts. In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Alyssa Brugman’s Alex as Well, comedy functions to encourage a re-evaluation of happiness and to question its appeal.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2015.002
The Mainstreaming of Controversy in Children’s and YA Book Award Winners: How on Earth Did That Book Win?
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Brooks, Kevin. The Bunker Diary. New York: Carolrhoda, 2015.
Reid, Raziel. When Everything Feels Like the Movies. Vancouver: Arsenal, 2014.
Smith, Andrew. Grasshopper Jungle. New York: Dutton, 2014.
Tamaki, Mariko. This One Summer. Illus. Jillian Tamaki. Toronto: Groundwood, 2014.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2015.001
Speculative Fiction and Faith
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Becker, Helaine. Gottika. Illus. Alexander Griggs-Burr. Toronto: Dancing Cat, 2014.
Bow, Erin. Sorrow’s Knot. New York: Levine, 2013.
Goelman, Ari. The Path of Names. New York: Levine, 2013.
Goto, Hiromi. Darkest Light. Illus. Jillian Tamaki. Toronto: Razorbill, 2012.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2015.001
Multiculturalism, Psychogeography, and Brian Doyle’s Angel Square: “A Dangerous Square to Cross”
No full textDuring the 1980s, Canada entrenched within legislation an understanding of multiculturalism as a core constituent of national identity in accordance with the principles of diversity and equality. This paper explores how Brian Doyle problematizes the notion of multiculturalism in his 1984 novel Angel Square by exploring the hostility and violence inherent in children’s play. In so doing, it focuses on Doyle’s eleven-year-old protagonist, Tommy, who confronts the evils of post-war anti-Semitism while working toward an ecumenical vision of peace despite religious, cultural, and linguistic differences.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2016.000