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University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting ONE NATION, UNDER TEENS: YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER By CASEY WILSON A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2016 © 2016 Casey Wilson To the ladies of the Cottage, past, present, and honorary: Thank you for getting me through ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Although so much of writing a dissertation comes down to one person in front of a computer screen for hours on end, it is far from a solitary process. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to so many—friends, family, and colleagues alike—for ensuring that I never once felt alone on this journey. First and foremost, I must thank my committee. I am grateful to Kenneth Kidd for his seemingly inexhaustible kindness and generosity, and to Laurie Gries for being so committed to providing the best support and advice possible. I am glad to have had Ben DeVane’s help in developing the initial shape of my project, and I am thankful that Sevan Terzian was willing to step into a project nearing its end with such thoughtfulness and enthusiasm. This project would not exist without all of your expertise, insight, and support. I also wish to thank the incredible community of scholars in the University of Florida Department of English for being so intelligent and supportive. Emily Brooks, Andrew Wilson, Kelly Beck, Asmaa Ghonim, Jonathan Hernandez, and so many others have made it a pleasure to walk into my office each day. The children’s literature community in particular has been a constant source of connection, happiness, and inspiration; with Poushali Bhadury, Jill Coste, Anuja Madan, Emily Murphy, Suzan Alteri, and Akilah Brown each on the job in their own ways, I know the field is in great hands. I owe special thanks to Mary Roca, Alyssa Hunziker, Rafael Hernandez, and Rebecca McNulty for being the best friends and “gradbabies” I could ever have asked for, and for being so nice to my dogs. Even when she was on another continent, Kate Peters managed to be in my corner. Every single chapter in this project carries Rebekah Fitzsimmons’s fingerprints; without our lunches and Skype sessions, this project would 4 still be in its infancy. Mariko Turk quite literally worked by my side week after week for seven years, and somehow continues to be my friend. There is no other person who I would rather have gone on this journey with, and I cannot wait to see where her intelligence, grace, and determination take her next. Wherever it is, I know it will involve more than a few a celebrations along the way. Finally, I must thank my director, Anastasia Ulanowicz. I never meant to study children’s literature—not until I registered for Anja’s class as an undergrad, and found my home. She has supported me, pushed me, and inspired me my entire time at the University of Florida. I am so grateful to have had her by my side for the past decade; without her, no part of my academic career would have been possible. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. 8 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: READ ALL ABOUT IT: FINDING THE TEENAGER IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE ............................................................................... 11 The Teenager ......................................................................................................... 17 Young Adult Literature ............................................................................................ 22 Project Overview ..................................................................................................... 26 2 HIGH SCHOOL SWEETHEARTS: SEVENTEENTH SUMMER AND THE WARTIME TEENAGER .......................................................................................... 32 The First Teenage Generation ................................................................................ 34 Finding the Teenage Voice ..................................................................................... 39 A New Social Order ................................................................................................ 48 The Frivolity of Consumerism ................................................................................. 54 The Thoughtfulness of Maturity .............................................................................. 59 In the Aftermath of War ........................................................................................... 67 3 KIDS LIKE US: THE OUTSIDERS, THE SOUL BROTHERS, AND THE DELINQUENT TEENAGER .................................................................................... 70 Juvenile Delinquency and a New YA ...................................................................... 74 Fractures in the Family ........................................................................................... 82 Paul Newman and a Record Deal ........................................................................... 86 Who Lives, Who Dies.............................................................................................. 93 Who Tells Your Story ............................................................................................ 107 4 OUT OF THE WOODS: THE PROBLEM NOVEL, SWEET VALLEY HIGH, AND THE (UN)REAL TEENAGER ................................................................................ 110 The Problem Novel ............................................................................................... 116 Constructing the Teenage Voice ........................................................................... 120 Stealing from the Soap Opera .............................................................................. 129 Reaganomics and the Wakefields ........................................................................ 136 Just Say No .......................................................................................................... 139 D-I-V-O-R-C-E ...................................................................................................... 145 Into the Sunset ...................................................................................................... 148 6 5 ONLY MOSTLY DEAD: MONSTER, THE NEW MILLENNIUM, AND THE DEATH OF THE TEENAGER ............................................................................... 151 The Disappearance of the Teenager .................................................................... 155 The Death of YA ................................................................................................... 161 The Printz Arrives ................................................................................................. 166 If You Can’t Beat ‘Em… ........................................................................................ 176 The Monstrosity of Race ....................................................................................... 182 Neither Beginning Nor End ................................................................................... 191 6 CONCLUSION: THE WORLD AHEAD: KAMALA KHAN AND THE FUTURE OF THE TEENAGER .................................................................................................. 194 Twilight, Twitter, and the Dawn of a New Era ....................................................... 198 Summer Lovin’ ...................................................................................................... 201 The Whole Gang Is Here ...................................................................................... 204 Shiny Pretty Things ............................................................................................... 208 Never Grow Up ..................................................................................................... 210 Generation Why .................................................................................................... 213 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 219 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 225 7 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ALA American Library Association TV Television YA Young Adult YALSA Young Adult Library Services Association 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy ONE NATION, UNDER TEENS: YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER By Casey Wilson May 2016 Chair: Anastasia Ulanowicz Major: English This project examines the political and cultural construction of the American teenager in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries alongside the development of young adult (YA) literature. The histories of YA literature and the teenager have each been explored in extensive detail by literary critics, historians, and other writers, but, with limited exceptions, they have been treated as entirely separate discussions. In this project, I bring the two together in a significant way for the first time, as I argue that YA literature and the teenager have, in fact, always been part of the same conversation. I demonstrate
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