Farrow, Erin (2017) Somewhere Between: The Shifting Trends in the Narrative Strategies and Preoccupations of the Young Adult Realistic Fiction Genre in Australia. PhD thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

‘Young adult realistic fiction’ is a classification used by contemporary publishers such as Random House, McGraw Hill Education and Scholastic, who define it as ‘stories with characters, settings, and events that could plausibly happen in true life’ (Scholastic 2014). From the first Australian young adult imprint in 1986 it has become possible to trace substantial shifts in the trends of genre. This thesis explores some of the ways that the narrative structures and preoccupations of contemporary Australian young adult realistic fiction novels have shifted, particularly in regards to the portrayal of the main protagonist’s self-awareness, the complexity of the subject matter being discussed and the unresolved nature of the novels’ endings. The significance of these shifting trends within the genre is explored by means of a creative component and an accompanying exegesis. Through my novel, Somewhere between, I aim to consider and build on the changing narrative structures and preoccupations of Australian novels of the young adult realistic fiction genre. The exegesis uses the examination of representative Australian YA novels published between 1986 and 2013 to demonstrate the shifting trends in these three main narrative structures and preoccupations. The gradual, steady, shift in the narrative structures and preoccupations of the genre away from stability and assurance gives evidence of shifting notions of childhood and adolescent subjectivity within contemporary Australian society.

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