ERIC Number: EJ1312257
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0018-1498
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Engaging High School Students in Interrogating Neoliberalism in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
Connors, Sean P.
High School Journal, v104 n2 p84-103 Win 2021
If Young Adult (YA) literature constitutes one of the social mechanisms that indoctrinate teenagers into working within capitalistic institutions, high school teachers would do well to ask what political and economic ideologies YA fiction invites teenage readers to adopt. This article examines one genre of YA literature--YA dystopian fiction--to understand how it participates in neoliberal discourse. The article begins by defining neoliberalism and describing some of its core assumptions. Responding to arguments that regard YA dystopia as reproducing neoliberalism and its attendant ideologies, the article next examines how the critical dystopia, a type of dystopia that emerged in the 1980s and which critiques oppressive systems by depicting characters who resist them, models strategies for resisting neoliberalism. To demonstrate the different stances that YA dystopias can take in regard to neoliberalism, the article then examines the different degrees of emphasis that three popular YA novels--"Divergent" (Roth, 2011), "The Hunger Games" (Collins, 2008), and "Orleans" (Smith, 2013)--place on individual exceptionalism, competition, and systemic oppression rooted in gender, race, and class. To conclude, the article discusses the implications for high school teachers of asking students to critique neoliberalism in YA literature, and in their lives more broadly.
Descriptors: Adolescent Literature, Fiction, Neoliberalism, Novels, Competition, Differences, Gender Bias, Racial Bias, Social Bias, High School Teachers, High School Students, Social Environment
University of North Carolina Press. 116 South Boundary Street, P.O. Box 2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288. Tel: 800-848-6224; Tel: 919-966-7449; Fax: 919-962-2704; e-mail: uncpress@unc.edu; Web site: https://ed.unc.edu/high-school-journal/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: High Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A