This study is an investigation of responses of four adolescent girls to the characters in two adolescent novels: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor; and Lyddie, by Katherine Paterson. The novels were chosen because the main characters are strong, independent young females, whose various struggles could provide a medium for a discussion of the needs, preoccupations, and aspirations of the girls in the study. The approach to the series of book discussions was based on Louise Rosenblatt’s conceptions of literature as human experience and a medium for exploration. The research was further informed by multiple perspectives on reader response theory as presented by Richard Beach, and by the work of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule on the various ways women approach learning. Although response begins as an individual activity, a primary focus of the study was an investigation of responses shared in a group setting. The study is a contribution to the efforts of educators and others concerned with the enhancement of women’s confidence by a validation of their experiences, and through demonstrations of social constructions of meaning. / Ph. D.

Adolescence – that tricky time when children have not yet reached adulthood – is a time of much disturbance, change and growth. Faced with a body that changes, stretches and grows in all directions, as does the mind, the adolescent finds that they are not who they once were, and that their concerns are not what they once were. According to David Punter, the nature of adolescence is integral to Gothic writing; for him, adolescence can be seen as a time when there is a fantasised inversion of boundaries: ‘where what is inside finds itself outside (acne, menstrual blood, rage) and what we think should be visibly outside (heroic dreams, attractiveness, sexual organs) remain resolutely inside and hidden’ (Punter 1998, 6). However, this is to ‘Gothicise’ adolescents - to view adolescents themselves as Gothic beings – rather than to understand what the true nature of their concerns and fears really are. This thesis intends to investigate, therefore, those fears and concerns as they are represented through the medium of Gothic texts written for adolescents. I propose to examine what happens to the Gothic mode in the gap between young children’s literature and adult fiction and will look at, through the Gothic lens, Young Adult literature which explores the teenager's relationships with issues such as sex, death and autonomy. As the Gothic is ‘erotic at root’ (Punter 1996, 191) and often focused on the centrality of sexuality, I explore the nature of ‘changing bodies’ and consider the adolescent’s burgeoning sexuality and desire for romantic relationships; however, the Gothic is not just about sex, and I also examine adolescent engagement with the concept of death, before finally going on to study issues of adolescent power and autonomy.

This study describes a content analysis of six contemporary young adult fiction novels. Adolescence is a time of great change, particularly for girls. It is during this time that female adolescents develop their voice and identity. As literature reflects the reader’s world, it also affects in part how female adolescents perceive their identity. Latent content analysis was used to code eight variables to determine if select contemporary young adult fiction novels appropriately describe the development of identity among adolescent females. All of the novels included in the study provided sufficient evidence of accurate portrayal of female adolescent identity development, by having examples of at least four out of eight variables, with most having examples of seven out of eight variables.

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