ERIC Number: EJ967213
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Jun
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0045-6713
EISSN: N/A
"You Are a Flaw in the Pattern": Difference, Autonomy and Bullying in YA Fiction
Lopez-Ropero, Lourdes
Children's Literature in Education, v43 n2 p145-157 Jun 2012
Though portrayals of bullying in children's books stretch back to Victorian public school stories, this article sees a new subgenre about bullying in young adult novels emerging in the post-Columbine years. Selected works by Jerry Spinelli, Walter Dean Myers, Jaime Adoff, Carol Plum-Ucci and Rita Williams-Garcia are examined, although the article begins by looking at a precursor of this subgenre, Robert Cormier's classic "The Chocolate War." In this subgenre, it is argued that bullying is not presented as dysfunctional adolescent behavior, but as a tool for addressing issues of difference and discrimination on the grounds of race, class, sexual orientation or personality; issues that filter into adolescent culture. High schools are thus portrayed as totalitarian microcosms where bullying functions as a means of social control, curbing deviance from masculine, heterosexual, middle-class and white norms. The narrative techniques and themes of these books--around homophobia, jock culture, rampage shootings and girl-on-girl violence--will be examined.
Descriptors: Adolescent Literature, Bullying, Novels, High Schools, Social Control, Social Discrimination, Homosexuality, Social Bias, Athletes, Culture, Violence, Females, Personal Autonomy, United States Literature
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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