I won't pretend like this critical reading wasn't a difficult one. I feel like I understand it to an extent, but perhaps it goes too deep down the rabbit hole for my comfort. It's true that there is irony in adult authors writing young adult literature in the voice (typically) of a young adult. An adult can't really take back all of the experiences and knowledge that they've gained since they were a young adult and therefore can't prevent their own voice from leaking onto the pages, no matter how hard they may try to stay true to the young adult voice. Maybe it was only me, but I remember realizing as a young adult reader that most of the books I was reading were written by adults who had already gone through all of the stuff in the book. It made me wonder why they continued to write young adult fiction or how they were even able to remember what it was truly like. For me, there was questioning, but maybe for most there wasn't. However, I think that the author of this critical reading assumes that young adults aren't capable of questioning the voice of the author and that they need some hints or clues to make them question the voice that they're reading either by making the narrator unreliable or by creating other characters and voices which offer a different perspective. I think that she is possibly underestimating the intelligence of young people or the adult-ness of young people and their ability to relate to the adult voice. Perhaps I'm steering away from the conversation in the article at this point.
I would say that Dante and Aristotle offered several voices in the book which would allow the reader to take form their own opinions. It might not be the perfect example of what the author of this article is looking for, but I think it counts. Looking for Alaska, however, seems to be exactly what the author is arguing against. There's definitely irony in the relationship between the author and the reader and the voice of the narrator is not very diverse. I'm not sure if Northern Light went with Bahktins theory, but I know it offered several different voices at least. It's difficult for me to tell, but I know that all books were written by adults. Not all were written in first person, though. Perhaps that allows for more double-voiced discourse in and of itself. Any way, for those of you who understand the article better, please leave you comments and throw me a bone here.
You brought up a lot of interesting points in this--and I agree wholeheartedly. I did feel like the author of "Irony in YA Lit" was underestimating the intelligence of teenage readers. And that underestimation lies at the core of most of the argument the article made... It's problematic, at the very least. Even if not EVER YA reader reads "intelligently", we should still have a duty to those who do, and those who question topics such as authorial voice.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know if eitherof us understood this article well enough to give it the play-by-play it probably deserves... Hopefully someone who did gives us both some valuable insights. Thanks for the food for thought, and have a great weekend!