ENGL 216: Contemporary Children's and Young Adult Literature

In this course, students will study young adult literature written in the last thirty years. Rather than seeing young adult literature as an apolitical tool for teaching literacy skills, this class will argue that young adult literature is inherently political. Many of the most innovative authors working in the field today are also doing activist work. The class will take an intersectional approach to the study of the representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality in contemporary young adult film, graphic novels, and young adult novels.