Browsing by Author "Gravano, María Paula"

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    Heroines in young adult literature : An analysis in female gender stereotyping
    (2020-12-10) Gravano, María Paula; Basile, Gastón Javier
    Young Adult literature is a category which was originally intended for adolescent readership, yet it has also attracted children and adults due to its exploration of universal themes, including life and death, the transition from childhood into adulthood, identity formation, love in all its gamut of experiences, the development of one’s emotions, and the questioning of the status quo. This type of literature witnessed a significant increase at the beginning of the XXI century with the worldwide success achieved by the publication of the Harry Potter series (1997-2007), which encouraged the writing of other best-selling Young Adult works, such as the gothic love story Twilight (2005-2008) and the dystopias The Hunger Games (2008-2010) and Divergent (2011-2013). Despite the fact that these popular series address topics which particularly interest Young Adult readers, the portrayal of their characters also represents societal expected gender identities and behaviours whether intended or not. For this reason, and with the recent heightened awareness of the influence of patriarchy and heteronormativity in literature, it becomes imperative to re-read these internationally acclaimed literary texts more critically from a perspective which includes both feminism and gender theory. The purpose of the present dissertation is to examine whether the characterisation of the leading female characters in the Young Adult literary sagas of Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games and Divergent reinforce gender stereotypes. A detailed analysis of the four series reveals that not only female gender stereotyping is consolidated in these works but also the characterisation of the heroines does not ultimately subvert the hegemonic patriarchal heteronormative parameters despite clear attempts at challenging traditional female role models. The study also confirms that both the publishing market as well as the literary tradition and specific subgenres of Young Adult literature partly determine the representation of the leading female characters of the sagas under study.