Engaging High School Students in Interrogating Neoliberalism in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction

Autor/in	Connors, Sean P.
Titel	Engaging High School Students in Interrogating Neoliberalism in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
Quelle	In: High School Journal, 104 (2021) 2, S.84-103 (20 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0018-1498
Schlagwörter	Adolescent Literature; Fiction; Neoliberalism; Novels; Competition; Differences; Gender Bias; Racial Bias; Social Bias; High School Teachers; High School Students; Social Environment + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Adolescent; Adolescents; Literature; Jugend; Jugendalter; Jugendlicher; literatur; Fiktion; Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; Novel; Roman; Wettkampf; Unterscheiden; Geschlechterstereotyp; Racial discrimination; Rassismus; High school; High schools; Teacher; Teachers; Oberschule; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Student; Students; Schüler; Schülerin; Studentin; Soziales Umfeld
Abstract	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. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	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/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01