Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 6-17-2021 11:30 AM Capital Distress: Productive Citizenship and Mental Health in Adolescent Literature Jeremy TL Johnston, The University of Western Ontario Supervisor: Green-Barteet, Miranda, The University of Western Ontario A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in English © Jeremy TL Johnston 2021 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Johnston, Jeremy TL, "Capital Distress: Productive Citizenship and Mental Health in Adolescent Literature" (2021). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 7876. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7876 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract This dissertation explores the complexities of adolescent mental health under neoliberal capitalism in twentieth- and twenty-first-century U.S. fiction about and for adolescents. Drawn on research that defines youth citizenship as responsibilities-based in nature, this project outlines the ways contemporary young adult (YA) novels of mental distress reveal an inextricable link between adolescent mental health and the conditions of what I term productive citizenship. Constituting my theorization of productive citizenship are three distinct tenets adolescents must adhere to: (1) displaying the motivation to achieve specific goals; (2) showing a propensity for self-reliance and individuality; and (3) accepting the translation of political concerns into personal, psychological issues and resolving those issues through individual treatments.