“Surviving” Adolescence: Apocalyptic and Post- Apocalyptic Transformations in Young Adult Fiction Thesis submitted by Anna Whateley B.A. (Hons) Brunel University, P.G.C.E University of Hertfordshire. March 2010 Centre for Learning Innovation Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Keywords Young adult fiction, literature, apocalypse, post-apocalypse, transformation, adolescence, poststructuralism, death, subjectivity, agency. ii Abstract This study, entitled ―‗Surviving‘ Adolescence: Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic transformations in young adult fiction‖, analyses how discourses surrounding the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic are represented in selected young adult fiction published between 1997 and 2009. The term ―apocalypse‖ is used by current theorists to refer to an uncovering or disclosure (most often a truth), and ―post-apocalypse‖ means to be after a disclosure, after a revelation, or after catastrophe. This study offers a double reading of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic discourses, and the dialectical tensions that are inherent in, and arise from, these discourses. Drawing on the current scholarship of children‘s and young adult literature this thesis uses post-structural theoretical perspectives to develop a framework and methodology for conducting a close textual analysis of exclusion, ‗un‘differentiation, prophecy, and simulacra of death. The combined theoretical perspectives and methodology offer new contributions to young adult fiction scholarship. This thesis finds that rather than conceiving adolescence as the endurance of a passing phase of a young person‘s life, there is a new trend emerging in young adult fiction that treats adolescence as a space of transformation essential to the survival of the young adult, and his/her community. iii List of Relevant Publications (as Anna Free) Free, Anna. (2006). Moonlit Revelations: The discourse of the end in Gina B. Nahai's Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith. Papers: Explorations into Children‟s Literature, 16(2), 35-39. Free, Anna. (2008). The Real Lies: The simulacrum in Catherine Fisher's The Oracle. Papers: Explorations into Children‟s Literature, 18(2), 54-58. iv Table Contents KEYWORDS ............................................................................................................................................ II ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................. III LIST OF RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS ......................................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................... IX STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................................ X ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... XI “EPILOGUE” ........................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 3 TELEOLOGY AND DIALECTICS ............................................................................................................................ 7 APOCALYPTIC AND POST-APOCALYPTIC ............................................................................................................ 12 THREE APOCALYPSES OF YOUNG ADULTHOOD: LIFE, DESTINY, AND DEATH .............................................................. 15 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................................. 19 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 23 CHAPTER 2 DOOM WITH A VIEW: SURVIVING THE END TIMES IN YOUNG ADULT FICTION .................. 25 ABJECTION AND THE UNDIFFERENTIATED IN YOUNG ADULT FICTION ...................................................................... 28 The Undifferentiated.......................................................................................................................... 29 Taboo, Taboo Breaking, and Sacrifice ............................................................................................... 31 Chaos and Pollution ........................................................................................................................... 34 Return to Order .................................................................................................................................. 35 WORDS FROM ABOVE: DESTINY, PROPHECY, AND APOCALYPTIC FUTURES ............................................................... 37 v SURFACES: TRUTH AND THE SIMULACRUM IN THE APOCALYPTIC AND POST-APOCALYPTIC ........................................... 46 DEATH AND THE END IN THE POST-APOCALYPTIC .............................................................................................. 54 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 64 CHAPTER 3 A METHODOLOGY FOR READING THE APOCALYPTIC IN (UN)REAL YOUNG ADULT FICTION 66 NARRATIVE (UN)STRUCTURING: TOWARDS A MODEL FOR POST-APOCALYPTIC ANALYSIS ............................................ 69 Heroic Tales and the Apocalyptic Cycle ............................................................................................. 71 Post-ing the Apocalypse through Time and Space ............................................................................. 77 DECONSTRUCTING THE YOUNG ADULT SUBJECT IN FICTION: LANGUAGE AND DIALECTICS ........................................... 83 Agency ............................................................................................................................................... 89 The Reader-Text Relationship ............................................................................................................ 90 PLACING THE TEXTS ..................................................................................................................................... 92 Other Lives: Chapter 4 ....................................................................................................................... 95 (Un)Fulfilled Prophecies: Chapter 5 ................................................................................................... 97 Undoing Death: Chapter 6 ............................................................................................................... 100 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 104 CHAPTER 4 APOCALYPTIC DISCOURSES: THE DIALECTIC OF INTEGRATION ..........................................106 I. SETTING THE APOCALYPTIC SCENE: BEING UNDIFFERENTIATED .................................................................. 109 Chaos and The Spread of Pollution .................................................................................................. 118 From Exclusion to Apocalypse .......................................................................................................... 126 II. MIXING MONSTER BLOOD: EXTENDING THE APOCALYPTIC MODEL FOR ANALYSIS .......................................... 136 The Animal Within: Monstrous embodiments of undifferentiation ................................................. 137 (Dis)closure in The Apocalyptic ........................................................................................................ 147 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 151 CHAPTER 5 POST-APOCALYPTIC CROSSINGS: THE DIALECTIC OF TIME AND SPACE ..............................153 vi WHAT IF THE GODS ARE REAL? AGENCY IN THE POST-APOCALYPTIC .................................................................... 155 The Divine and The Subject .............................................................................................................. 158 Bearing the God’s Lies: Presence and absence ................................................................................ 162 (Un)Real Death ................................................................................................................................ 165 MOONLIT REVELATIONS: TIME AND PROPHECY AND THE DISPLACED APOCALYPSE ................................................... 169 The Cursed Ones: The Rat and the Raven ........................................................................................ 170 The Cursed Ones: Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith ...................................................................... 173 MESSENGERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE: A POST-APOCALYPTIC EXISTENCE .............................................................. 176 Ravens .............................................................................................................................................. 177 Crows ..............................................................................................................................................