Roundtable: Young Adult Women’s Literature and Boundary Blurring (DeadlineJanuary 15, 2015)

Call for Papers for SSAWW Conference November 4-8, 2015, Philadelphia

This roundtable, Young Adult Women’s Literature and Boundary Blurring, explores how teen or YA literature by American women writers occupies liminal spaces and blurs boundaries. Like the teen, YA literature exists in a state of flux. It is often relegated to a space between “lowbrow” and “highbrow” literature, it has a multi-aged readership though designated for teens, and it is considered a relatively new genre despite actually existing for centuries.

 crossover writers – authors who blur the boundary between academic/popular and adult/teen, such as Joyce Carol Oates

 hybrid audiences – the appeal of teen fiction, such as The Hunger Games, to not-

so-young adults

 historical context– the contemporary explosion of the YA market; re-

conceptualizing genres of women’s writing that pre-date the 1890s (when theconcept of adolescence emerged)

 practical pedagogy – experiences teaching YA women’s literature in the college classroom

 current debates – who should read YA fiction; sexism and elitism among YA critics