The novel Bifocal, a fictional young adult novel that examines the racist backlash that occurs at a high school after a male Muslim student is arrested on terrorism charges, was published in 2007 and has received wide critical acclaim for its portrayal of issues of racism. Working from an anti-racist framework, this research interviews two teachers who have used the novel in their classrooms, and considers the value and limitations of the book as an anti-racist teaching tool. Through discussions about specific themes in the novel and its overall presentation of racism, I argue that, while Bifocal presents some useful interventions, it also reflects a simplistic and individualistic perspective on racism and how racism can be addressed. I also examine the ways that Bifocal – and young adult literature in general – can be read in order to encourage more critical discussions about systems of racism and privilege.

The novel Bifocal, a fictional young adult novel that examines the racist backlash that occurs at a high school after a male Muslim student is arrested on terrorism charges, was published in 2007 and has received wide critical acclaim for its portrayal of issues of racism. Working from an anti-racist framework, this research interviews two teachers who have used the novel in their classrooms, and considers the value and limitations of the book as an anti-racist teaching tool. Through discussions about specific themes in the novel and its overall presentation of racism, I argue that, while Bifocal presents some useful interventions, it also reflects a simplistic and individualistic perspective on racism and how racism can be addressed. I also examine the ways that Bifocal – and young adult literature in general – can be read in order to encourage more critical discussions about systems of racism and privilege.

This dissertation offers the term “narrative intimacy” to refer to an implicit relationship between narrator and reader that depends upon disclosure and trust. By examining contemporary American fiction for adolescent women by critically- and commercially-successful authors such as Sarah Dessen, Stephenie Meyer, and Laurie Halse Anderson, I explore the use of narrative intimacy as a means of reflecting and reinforcing larger, often contradictory, cultural expectations regarding adolescent women, interpersonal relationships, and intimacy. Specifically, I investigate the possibility that adolescent women narrators construct understandings of the adolescent woman reader as a friend, partner in desire, or “bibliotherapist,” which in turn allow the narrator to understand the reader as a safe and appropriate location for disclosure. At the same time, the novels I discuss offer frequent warnings against the sort of unfettered disclosure the narrators perform in their relationships with the reader: friendships are marked as potential sites of betrayal and rejection, while romantic relationships are presented as inherently threatening to physical and emotional health. In order to interrogate the construction of narrative intimacy, I rely upon a tradition of narrative and reception theory concerning the roles of narrator and reader. I also turn to other cultural representations of adolescent women and their relationships, from films, television, and magazines to the self-help and nonfiction literature that provides insight into current psychological, sociological, and anthropological understandings of adolescent womanhood. Ultimately, I argue, the prevalence of narrative intimacy in fiction for adolescent women reflects a complex system that encourages adolescent women to seek intimate interpersonal relationships even as it discourages the type and degree of disclosure that is ostensibly required in the development of intimacy. The narrator thus turns to the reader because the “logical gap”—to borrow a term from Peter Lamarque—between fiction and reality allows for a construction of the reader as a recipient of disclosure who cannot respond with the threats of criticism, judgment, or rejection that may be presented by other characters within the text. The reader, in turn, may come to depend upon narrative intimacy as a space through which to vicariously explore her own understanding of intimacy.

The book publishing industry experienced a period of drastic change during the final decades of the twentieth century. Small publishing companies consolidated and were purchased by large, profit-minded media conglomerates. The widespread adoption of digital media technologies prompted many questions about the very future of the book itself. Yet at the pinnacle of these changes, the American young adult publishing market gradually began to experience not a decline, but a renaissance. In this report, I explore ways that changes in book publishing have manifested themselves in contemporary young adult literature through two case studies. Are today’s young adult books works of literature or commercial products? Is their increased popularity due to widening readership or more savvy marketing? Are the companies producing them more concerned with the public good or their own profit margins? / text

Thesis (M.A.)--Texas State University--San Marcos, 2008. / Vita. Appendix: leaves 90-93. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99). Also available on microfilm.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2004. / Title from title page screen, viewed Oct. 15, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Jan Susina (chair), Christopher Breu, Sally E. Parry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-181) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: [48]-49)

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Houston, 1989. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-95).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed September 27, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Karen S. Coats (chair), C. Anita Tarr, Nancy D. Tolson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-149) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.