Description
Book SynopsisIf there is one trend in children's and YA literature that seems to be enjoying a steady rise in popularity, it is the expansion of the YA dystopian genre. While the genre has been lauded for its potential to expand horizons, promote critical thinking, and foster social awareness and activism, it has also come under scrutiny for its promotion of specific ideologies and its often sensationalist approach to real-world problems. In an examination of six YA dystopian texts spanning more than twenty years of development of the genre, this book explores the way in which posthumanist ideologies in particular are deployed or resisted in these texts as a means of making sense of the specific challenges which young people confront in the twenty-first century.
Trade ReviewBecause it entails the erasure of borders between the individual, the collective, and the environment, the posthuman state, Harrison argues, is inimical to the bildungsroman narrative that has typically underpinned YA dystopias. Harrison's contribution to scholarship on posthumanism in YA literature is significant, and it lies in providing a framework for understanding the dystopian genre as a tool of posthuman inquiry, albeit one that is still struggling to liberate itself from the conventions of the bildungsroman.
* Children's Literature Association Quarterly *
Harrison offers an original and critical contribution to the study of dystopian young adult literature by focusing on pressing ethical concerns around the limits of humanism, environmental degradation, and the category of the human. This book will be a useful resource to scholars and general readers interested in YA literature, dystopia, ecocriticism, and critical posthumanism. -- Libe García Zarranz, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Harrison proposes a way of reading a broad range of dystopian fiction consistent with the present dilemmas and succeeds in demonstrating that the contemporary crisis of humanity has multifaceted portrayals in literature for young readers. * International Research in Children’s Literature *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Young Adult Dystopia and the Posthuman Perspective
Chapter 1: Carrie Ryan’s Forest of Hands and Teeth: Sex, Infection and Hopelessness
Chapter 2: Lois Lowry’s The Giver: Biotechnology, Wilderness, and Government
Chapter 3: Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking Trilogy: Language and the Non-Human Other
Chapter 4: Neal Shusterman’s Unwind: Posthuman Recycling and the Death of the Hero
Chapter 5: Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines Series: Posthumanism, Evolution, Apocalypse, and Time
Chapter 6: Adam Rapp’s Decelerate Blue: Solarpunk, Consumerism, and the Posthumanist Future
Conclusion: Young Adult Dystopia and the Posthuman Perspective
