Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 177 - July 2009

Cover Story

This issue’s cover illustration features Kevin Brooks (photograph by Charles Shearn) and his latest book, Killing God. Kevin Brooks is interviewed by Brian Alderson. Thanks to Penguin Books for their help with this July cover.

  • PDFPDF
  • Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version
  • Send to friendSend to friend

Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature

Kathryn James
(Routledge)
220pp, 978-0415964937, RRP £95.00, Hardcover
Books About Children's Books
Buy "Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature (Children's Literature and Culture)" on Amazon

This scholarly study, based on the author’s doctoral thesis, draws heavily on Australian teenage fiction written during the last twenty years, some of which may be inaccessible to readers in this country. Its main finding however remains clear and interesting. James believes that adolescents are particularly drawn to the depiction of death in their literature because this interest coincides with their new understanding of their own carnality. Growing up, in this sense, brings about for teenagers a realisation of their own physical potentialities, including the fact that one day all this must also end. Links between gender and different attitudes towards death in fiction are followed through in succeeding chapters. Not easy to read, with references clogging up almost every other sentence, this is still a useful study of a topic that shows no sign of dying itself in terms of the amount of young adult books that seem increasingly drawn towards this subject.

Reviewer: 
Nicholas Tucker
3
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account