ENG 300 - Forms of Young Adult Fiction

Within the broad world of contemporary fiction, young adult fiction is a specialized publisher category, one determined by the presumed age of the reader and characterized by protagonists who are also coming of age. Wide-ranging across subgenres (realism, fantasy, horror, realism, romance, science fiction), young adult fiction is a desirable commodity offered by all major trade publishers and tops best-seller AND banned books lists. While the phrase young adult may imply “juvenile” or “simple,” award-winning young adult novels are complex, varied, and culturally significant.

As do the other 300 level forms courses in ENG, this hybrid writing course adopts a collaborative laboratory approach to its specialized literary genre via theory and practice, emphasizing both study of and making of the object (young adult fiction). Together we will read literary criticism, discuss educational scholarship on the impacts of literacy, consider publishing trends, analyze contemporary narratives, and meet people publishing in field and read their work. Neither a workshop nor a lecture course, “Forms of Young Adult Fiction” will promote writing and reading as acts of play.

The course will require three different types of writing while assuming no significant expertise in any one area. Each student will produce literary scholarship, market analysis, and fiction and elect to pursue either a critical or a creative final project.

We will discuss creative work in progress through adopting practices common to television, specifically, the developmental method offered by the “Writers’ Room.” Students will bring assignments to the Writers’ Room and work with peers generatively, through brainstorming that focuses upon development, revision, and advancement rather than critique.

Ultimately, the course aims to investigate young adult fiction; what makes it work? What are its key components? What moves are possible in this genre? What moves are controversial, but important, in this genre? What are stories yet to be told and can I do the telling? We will innovate and play together.

Satisfies English major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Global Literary Theory major requirement.
Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric requirement.