Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic
Realism examines those fundamental themes which
inform our understanding of "the teenager"—themes that
emerge in both literary and cultural contexts. Models of
adolescence do not arise solely from discourses of
psychology, sociology, and education. Rather, these
models—frameworks including developmentalism, identity
formation, social agency, and subjectivity in cultural
space—can also be found represented symbolically in
fantastic tropes such as metamorphosis, time-slip,
hauntings, doppelgangers, invisibility, magic gifts, and
witchcraft. These are the incredible, supernatural, and
magical elements that invade the everyday and diurnal
world of fantastic realism. In this original study,
Alison Waller proposes a new critical term to categorize
a popular and established genre in literature for
teenagers: young adult fantastic realism. Though
fantastic realism plays a crucial part in the short
history of young adult literature, up until now this
genre has typically been overlooked or subsumed into the
wider class of fantasy. Touching on well-known authors
including Robert Cormier, Melvin Burgess, Gillian Cross,
Margaret Mahy, K.M. Peyton and Robert Westall, as well
as previously unexamined writers, Waller explores the
themes and ideological perspectives embedded in
fantastic realist novels in order to ask whether
parallel realities and fantastic identities produce
forms of adolescence that are dynamic and subversive.
One of the first studies to deal with late
twentieth-century fantastic literature for young adults,
this book makes a valuable contribution to our
understanding of adult attitudes toward adolescent
identity.
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