tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/hunger-games-19070/articlesHunger Games – The Conversation2018-01-04T22:31:22Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/887762018-01-04T22:31:22Z2018-01-04T22:31:22ZBest of young adult fiction: Classic and revolutionary reads for 2018<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200869/original/file-20180104-26157-17pul45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tackling tough topics from racism and bullying to Indigenous identity and the holocaust, young adult fiction can challenge stereotypes and encourage critical thinking. Pictured here, an illustration from 'Skim' by Mariko Tamaki, the fictional diary of a depressed Japanese-Canadian girl. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Handout.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Young adult (YA) fiction has come into its own. The past 20 years in particular have ushered in a new era of global prominence for the genre. </p>
<p>Twitter campaigns such as <a href="http://weneeddiversebooks.org">#weneeddiversebooks</a>, have advocated for changes in the publishing industry to produce literature that <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-great-reads-to-help-teens-become-critical-thinkers-88128">honours the diversity of young lives</a>. Readers’ choice awards, such as <a href="https://insideadog.com.au/blog/2017-inky-awards-shortlist-announcement">Inky Awards</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2017">Goodreads Choice Awards</a> have all boosted the genre. So have new <a href="http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/nyt-creates-separate-middle-grade-ya-bestsellers-lists/63047?red=as">YA-specific bestseller lists</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20468410?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">literary awards</a> such as the <a href="http://ggbooks.ca/#finalists">Governor General’s Literary Awards</a> in Canada and the <a href="http://www.ala.org/yalsa/printz">Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature</a> in the United States. </p>
<p>While series such as <em>Twilight</em> and <em>The Hunger Games</em> jump-started YA’s commercial success, many other titles offer deeply insightful and often humorous journeys into topics such as war, race, religion, sex and sexuality. These works offer young minds an antidote to the daily onslaught of social media feeds, encouraging deep and sustained engagement with contemporary issues — from the Black Lives Matter movement to bullying, homophobia and Indigenous identity. </p>
<p>Research has linked such books, and their bold treatment of difficult and uncomfortable issues, to <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ882396">rich classroom conversations on topics of disability, immigration and racism</a>. Young adult fiction also facilitates <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017169?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">identity development</a> among adolescents and offers potential for <a href="https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NW/article/viewFile/22784/26462">engagement with empathy</a> <a href="http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/EJ/1071-sep2017/EJ1071Saying.pdf">and cultivation of critical thinking</a>. </p>
<p>As former teachers, and now education scholars, we suggest novels that we believe are must-reads for teens and <a href="http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2017/04/readers-advisory/leading-adults-to-ya-fiction-readers-advisory/">also their parents</a>. We showcase books from the U.S., Canada and Australia <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/819931?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">that empower</a> the <a href="http://www.academia.edu/34414435/Opportunities_for_Advocacy_Interrogating_Multivoiced_YALs_Treatment_of_Denied_Identities">too-often silenced voices</a> of young people.</p>
<p>A focus on Anglophone fiction is of course narrow in scope. In the Canadian context alone, Quebecois literature is <a href="http://www.academia.edu/2221634/Brisson_G._and_Rogers_T._2012_._Reading_Place_Bodies_and_Spaces_in_Qu%C3%A9b%C3%A9cois_Adolescent_Literature._Childrens_Literature_in_Education._doi_10.1007_s10583-012-9180-5">gaining traction</a> for its <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/too-different-and-too-familiar-the-challenge-of-french-canadian-literature">valuable</a> yet <a href="http://lithub.com/five-great-contemporary-quebecois-writers/">routinely overlooked North American perspectives</a>. Nevertheless, we wanted to highlight diverse and award-winning texts for young adults that have cemented the genre’s newfound cultural significance. </p>
<p>These books <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/822056">broaden understandings of contemporary adolescent experiences</a> and <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/2512d37d55673f059b150f5a5ecbe17f/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41436">subvert commonly held stereotypes</a>, as well as being commercially successful. They are modern classics that have revolutionized the genre — through their thoughtful reflections on humanity, agency and redemption.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062498533/the-hate-u-give"><em>The Hate U Give</em></a></h2>
<p>Written by Angie Thomas. (2017, Harper Collins.)</p>
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<p>Lauded as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/books/review/black-lives-matter-teenage-books.html?_r=0">tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement</a>, Angie Thomas’s debut novel is as much a call to social justice as it is an intimate story of a young Black woman’s struggle to belong. </p>
<p>Commuting between her Black neighborhood of “Garden Heights” and her predominantly white suburban high school, 16-year-old Starr never quite feels like herself. When she witnesses the murder of her unarmed friend at the hands of a white police officer, she is compelled to make a choice — about who she is and who she wants to become.</p>
<p>This novel could be set anywhere, but Starr’s surprisingly funny account of activism is uniquely her own. As Thomas says: “I think that’s the big takeaway from the book, is that <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/02/26/517305270/the-hate-u-give-explores-racism-and-police-violence">Starr realizes her voice matters</a>.” There <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20468410?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">are not enough books so unapologetically honest and timely</a> and this is one to be <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/whe.20496/full">savoured and discussed</a>. </p>
<h2><a href="https://houseofanansi.com/products/skim"><em>Skim</em></a></h2>
<p>Written by Mariko Tamaki. Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. (2010, Groundwood Books.)</p>
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<p><em>Skim</em> is an inventive and highly praised (see below) graphic novel. It is set in an urban, private school for girls that is a staging ground for the journey of an increasingly depressed 16-year old Japanese-Canadian girl. Skim identifies as “goth” (it’s the ‘90s) and is uncertain of her sexuality and place in the social world of her peers.</p>
<p>Skim’s sardonic diary entries on bullying, homophobia and racism among her peer culture are deepened through a series of grey-toned comic panels that lighten as an unlikely friendship with a former antagonist develops. </p>
<p>The result is a <a href="http://www.tcj.com/the-jillian-tamaki-interview/2/">deliberately ambiguous</a> and uniquely compelling story of a particular time and place with universal resonance.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/693208.The_Absolutely_True_Diary_of_a_Part_Time_Indian"><em>The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian</em></a></h2>
<p>Written by Sherman Alexie. Art by Ellen Forney. (2009, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.)</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=933&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200833/original/file-20180104-26151-1lmqo24.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1172&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>In his <a href="http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2007_ypl_alexie.html#.WjHLuSOZN25">acceptance speech for the National Book Award</a>, Alexie references, “that gorgeous loneliness and that splendid isolation” of his first encounter with a book about a child of colour. This sentiment perfectly encapsulates the underlying tension in his semi-autobiographical narrative — of a ninth grade Indigenous boy’s decision to be educated off the Spokane Indian Reservation.</p>
<p>The protagonist — called Arnold at his school and Junior at home — infuses the novel’s diary entries with cartoon-doodles and sarcastic reflections on his life. </p>
<p>But through his comic veneer of anecdotal zit-popping and girl-ogling emerges the constant strain of reconciling individual ambition with loyalty to cultural community. </p>
<p>Alexie’s novel reveals the exquisite beauty of being able to tell your own story — even when the path there seems unimaginable or very lonely.</p>
<h2><a href="https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/196153/book-thief#9780375842207"><em>The Book Thief</em></a></h2>
<p>Written by Markus Zusak. (Reprint edition 2007, Knopf Books for Young Readers.)</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=940&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200836/original/file-20180104-26154-1ieqygr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>This <em>New York Times</em> bestseller is narrated by Death — so that readers experience an everyday German perspective of the Holocaust with excruciating poignancy and compassion. </p>
<p>Leisel is a young girl growing up during the Second World War who befriends Max, a complicated Jewish man hiding in the basement of her foster parents’ house. Through this relationship and her own resilience, Leisel develops into a person Death comes to admire.</p>
<p>Zusak <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-_8QIdm4hA">initially imagined his narrator differently</a> but realized Death would tell the story <a href="http://images.randomhouse.com/teachers_guides/9780375842207.pdf">“…to prove to himself that humans are actually worth it.”</a> </p>
<p>While potentially challenging for young readers, rarely will they find a book so well worth the investment.</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-58243-321-9"><em>A Complicated Kindness</em></a></h2>
<p>Written by Miriam Toews. (2007, Vintage Canada.)</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/200837/original/file-20180104-26154-13ctlo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p>Winner of the <a href="http://ggbooks.ca/past-winners-and-finalists">2004 Governor General’s Award for Fiction</a> and shortlisted for the <a href="http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/about/past-winners/">Giller Prize</a>, Miriam Toews’ wry, often discouraging account of small town life was not initially marketed as a young adult novel. However, it has <a href="http://cla.ca/wp-content/uploads/YA_Award-Past-Winners.pdf">since been lauded as a coming-of-age story suitable for teens</a>.</p>
<p>Narrator Nomi’s Mennonite village home is far from spiritually inspiring. At 16 she finds herself living alone with her father after both her mother and sister run off, anticipating a lifetime of drudgery working at the local chicken plant. As she notes, “there are no bars or visible exits.”</p>
<p>Yet despite its bleakness — exacerbated by Nomi’s frequent drug use and tragic blend of dry wit and self-loathing — Toews’ <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadareads/a-complicated-kindness-1.3991966#more">now classic Canadian narrative</a> is ultimately about faith, self-reliance and choosing to believe in the promise of the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Theresa Rogers has received funding from academic granting organizations for research on young adult literature. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Hamilton is a member of the Children's Literature Association and Vancouver's Children's Literature Roundtable.</span></em></p>Five novels for young adults that boldly tackle tough issues - from racism, to Indigenous identity and the Holocaust - to cultivate critical thinking in the classroom and at home.Theresa Rogers, Professor of Education, University of British ColumbiaCaroline Hamilton, PhD student in Language and Literacy Education, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/685992016-11-27T10:13:08Z2016-11-27T10:13:08ZBlack smoke rising: Under the influence of … Berni Searle’s video ‘Lull’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147546/original/image-20161125-32049-17dnhnd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Water’s Edge II (2009) - a print related to the 'Black Smoke Rising' series.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://bernisearle.com/">from http://bernisearle.com/</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In our regular series, “<a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/under-the-influence-31577">Under the influence</a>”, we ask experts to share what they believe are the most influential works of art or artists in their field. Here academic and artist Sharlene Khan, explains why she finds Berni Searle’s video “Lull”, a hugely influential work.</em></p>
<p>The video “Lull” (2009), from the “<a href="http://bernisearle.com/videos/">Black Smoke Rising</a>” series, opens up with a “garden scene”. In the middle of the frame, a person with her back to us – presumably the artist <a href="http://bernisearle.com/">Berni Searle</a>, herself – quietly and gently swings on a cut tyre that has been strung up for such a purpose.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Lull’ from Berni Searle’s ‘Black Smoke Rising’ series.</span></figcaption>
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<p>She faces the trees and body of water in front of her, humming, lulling us into the serenity that is on offer to our gaze. Words such as “idyllic” and “picturesque” come to mind, as does <a href="http://www.artble.com/artists/jean-honore_fragonard">Jean-Honoré Fragonard</a>’s 1767 painting entitled <a href="http://www.artble.com/artists/jean-honore_fragonard/paintings/the_swing">“The Swing”</a>, which exemplifies the frivolity of the <a href="https://news.artnet.com/market/a-brief-history-of-rococo-art-32790">Rococo art movement</a>. </p>
<p>In it we see a young rosy-cheeked maiden being pushed high into the air on a swing by an older gentleman. The setting is a beautiful garden with statues of cherubs. The woman’s excitement is uncontainable. It leads to an abandon of proper conduct as there is a suggestion that we could get a little peek under her ample dress and petticoat. As does the young gentleman lurking in the garden below, and we can perhaps guess that it is not so much the swing that has set her aflush as the little peekaboo game she and her lover are playing.</p>
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<span class="caption">Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s ‘The Swing’, 1767.</span>
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<p>Searle’s video, however, has none of this romance. A minute into the video the artist disappears from the swing, her humming eerily continues for a short while after she has gone, and reappears at the water’s edge to the left of the screen as if she is now part of the picturesque.</p>
<p>Moments later, her empty seat – what use is a swing if it’s not doing that? – fades away only to be replaced by the violent swinging into frame of a full tyre on fire. What was initially a scene of quiet contemplation, as we visually consumed both Searle and nature, has turned into a setting of seemingly unprovoked violence.</p>
<p>The buzz of insects, the call of geese and the endless noises we associate with the quiet of nature is overcome by the crackling of the fire emanating black smoke. The artist continues to stand apart from this violence, seemingly unaware, unaffected, back still to the threat behind her. </p>
<p>For the rest of the video, the tyre rests in the middle of frame being consumed by the flames. Curiously, even though the tyre eventually falls out of frame, clouds of black smoke emanate from somewhere outside the frame of our vision, the mechanised eye of the camera is shaken and we become aware that like Searle, there is a fire threatening us from behind while we’ve been watching this scene.</p>
<h2>Landscape art as veneers of violence</h2>
<p>The picturesque and the idyllic as represented in landscape art, as art historian <a href="https://sfaiph304.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/landscapeandpower.pdf">W.J.T. Mitchell</a> and cultural geographer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24396679?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">John Wylie</a> remind us, are veneers which hide scenes of grotesque violence and inequalities. Both theorists posit the concept that “landscape” is not just simply a physical entity “out there”, but is a construction of gazing and consuming that human beings have developed in relation to “nature”.</p>
<p>It is as an ideological construct of power which frames nature in very particular ways and for specific reasons. As people dependent for our survival on land, our cosmologies and spiritual practices teem with ways in which to appease the land to our favour. As we became industrialised, we could hide our anxieties of not being in complete control of nature by, in fact, seeming to control nature through borders we erect, through pretty gardens, through landscaping. Western fine art, as well as Chinese and Japanese landscape art, is filled with scenes in which “man” escapes from the hassles of his society back into nature, that one finds oneself in relation to/within nature.</p>
<p>As European nations developed their modern sense of nationalist pride, they did this against their colonial exploitation of lands in other spaces – scenes of a quiet pastoral England, Italy, Belgium or France were set against the primitive or exotic “elsewhere” where natives and nature where in harmony (and available for conquest). That is unless said natives were shown naughtily killing each other awaiting colonial rule to restore order to their chaos.</p>
<p>Nature was chaotic, as were those deemed closest to them: natives, women, homosexuals. When nature was unruly in Europe, it was only to fulfil the need for the sublime – the excess of Self – that always lurked within the reasoning man, that frightened and enchanted him and made his pulse run, so that he was always in search of it, even as he sought to dominate it. </p>
<p>Gardens have a long history in many cultures. They could be places of contemplation and self-reflection. Gardens could have streams which meant when one crossed over them, one was cleansed spiritually. They were sites of prestige in which the wild could be shown to be controllable; in smaller households they were a sign of stature, of a rising class level. Colonial gardens abroad were a sign of their administrative order and cultural values. </p>
<p>Hidden underneath painting codes are the violence and bloodshed of colonial exploitation done in the names of foreign kings and queens. Like a family album and photos of tourist trips, where everyone smiles and nobody can tell the irritations, abuse and pathologies that may lurk behind the photographic surface.</p>
<h2>Why is Searle’s work still relevant?</h2>
<p>Searle’s work is a daunting reminder of this. She violates the image through the burning tyre. For South Africans, the burning tyre is a strong reminder of a very recent past. A past that is always threatening to engulf the country: the burning tyre of the townships shown on the state broadcaster’s, the SAUK’s, news as South Africans were told their defence force was again trying to restore order to townships on fire.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147547/original/image-20161125-32049-gepgcj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Water’s Edge III’ (2009), a print from Berni Searle’s ‘Black Smoke Rising’ series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">From http://bernisearle.com/</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In more recent years, it is the SABC (what the SAUK has morphed into) telling the country how its police service is trying to bring peace to disgruntled township residents. Amid the pretty rhetoric that is South African tourism and former president Thabo Mbeki’s “African Renaissance” <a href="http://www.soweto.co.za/html/i_iamafrican.htm">speech</a> (“I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land”), there are tyres burning. Their black swirls reaching high into the sky right in front of Rhodes University’s Drama Department in Grahamstown.</p>
<p>Authoritarian backs straighten. The colonial imagination is invoked – if they could do that to a tyre, then they could do that to a white body. The tyre burns until only a ring of blackness marks a scene of signification, of seasons of discontent.</p>
<h2>Arson attacks</h2>
<p>Two weeks ago I arrive to invigilate an exam under stressful circumstances. In ensuring that exams continue regardless of student protests for free higher education, the Academic Registrar has decided that the building which seats 400 students will be locked and surrounded by private security and police in light of three different arson attacks. I make sure the fire exit doors are functioning only to discover that the alley into which both doors lead is closed off by high gates and locked from the outside. </p>
<p>In response to my disbelief against the blatant violation of fire regulations, I am told the guards posted outside the gates will hold keys. I leave the exam in protest and report the matter to the local Fire Chief. When he arrives he has the locks cut off the gates. Despite repeated emails to the university, the Registrar refuses to acknowledge emails calling for proper safety regulations. </p>
<p>I am reminded of the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0976051/">“The Reader”</a>, where Kate Winslet portrays a Nazi official who is brought to trial many years later for her part in an event where Jews were locked in a building and it burnt down with all the occupants inside. When asked why she had not opened the doors when she realised that the place was burning, Winslet’s character uncomprehendingly answers that there would have been chaos. I am reminded of such Nazi reasoning and illusions of order and rationality when empathy no longer resides in us, when fear rules.</p>
<p>Rhodes is no exception though. It doesn’t take a philosopher to understand that as many liberal ears close to the cries of the majority of people unable to progress in post-apartheid South Africa, our country will burn physically and metaphorically. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392170/">“Hunger Games”</a> fictional character Katniss Everdeen’s words to dictator President Snow might be worth hearkening to: “Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharlene Khan receives funding from the National Arts Foundation and the National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>Hidden underneath painting codes are the violence and bloodshed of colonial exploitation. ‘Lull’ is a daunting reminder of this.Sharlene Khan, South African visual artist and senior lecturer of Art History and Visual Culture at Rhodes University, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/469112015-11-19T18:10:47Z2015-11-19T18:10:47ZCould the Hunger Games turn your teen into a revolutionary?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/101136/original/image-20151107-16249-1yw5r0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">mockingjay jennife b</span> </figcaption></figure><p>As a fan of The Hunger Games trilogy, I cannot wait to see the final part of the film series. </p>
<p>The Hunger Games novels and films have fascinated me for more than seven years. </p>
<p>And I’m not alone.</p>
<p>The popular books by Suzanne Collins are the most visible example of a genre of stories today’s teens are reading voraciously: young adult dystopian fiction.</p>
<p>Dystopian fiction is set in a world where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives. Typically, these worlds are environmentally degraded or governed by totalitarian regimes. </p>
<p>My favorite example is George Orwell’s 1984, a hugely ambitious novel that deals with themes of both personal threat and universal oppression. Orwell’s vision is expressed in phrases like Big Brother, doublethink and Thought Police that are now part of everyday speech. </p>
<p>Even though they may have read 1984 as kids, some of today’s parents worry their teens’ obsession with dark fiction means they’ll grow up and overthrow the government – like Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games or Tris Prior in Divergent.</p>
<p>How real is this concern?</p>
<h2>Why is dystopian fiction popular?</h2>
<p>I am a narratologist, meaning I study the causes and effects of exposure to stories. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/673383">have found</a> that the extent to which a reader loses herself in a story is a major cause of the extent to which her attitudes change. </p>
<p>Losing oneself in a story is also known as narrative transportation. </p>
<p>Narratologists have uncovered three consequences of narrative transportation that explain the current popularity of young adult dystopian fiction.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Narrative transportation feels good. People like to empathize with story characters and to suspend reality.</p></li>
<li><p>Narrative transportation teaches people about story themes, such as poverty. In turn, this knowledge intensifies the narrative transportation experience and makes people care about these themes.</p></li>
<li><p>Narrative transportation teaches people about story symbols. For instance, the fictional mockingjay bird represents defiance in the Hunger Games. In turn, this knowledge makes it easier to follow the story, allows people to brag about being in the know, and strengthens in-group identity.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>All three consequences make people want to repeat narrative transportation, which is most easily done with sequels – like the four movies based on the three Hunger Game books, or stories in the same genre.</p>
<h2>Dystopian themes are egalitarian</h2>
<p>There is no doubt that storytelling is powerful, and can have an effect on readers.</p>
<p>Young adult dystopian fiction tends to include at least one key learning point or moral. When teens absorb the moral, it can change their attitudes and durably weave the story into teens’ life choices. Narratologists call this the cultivation effect.</p>
<p>The cultivation effect of Harry Potter <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/harry-potter-and-millennials">is reported</a> to have played an important role in galvanizing Millennials’ political opinions. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/anthony-gierzynski-132380">Anthony Gierzynski</a> and Kathryn Eddy note: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Harry Potter fans are more open to diversity and are more politically tolerant than nonfans; fans are also less authoritarian, less likely to support the use of deadly force or torture, more politically active, and more likely to have had a negative view of the Bush administration.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A similar effect could occur with teens and dystopian fiction. Many young adult dystopian stories tackle themes such as oppression, poverty, starvation, and war, among others. Relating to the story characters allows teens to explore and learn to care about these issues. Attitudes towards justice and responsibility can be changed when teens empathize with Tris or Katniss. </p>
<p>But that doesn’t mean dystopian-loving teens will act out the story plots when they grow up – say, by starting a revolution. </p>
<p>Rather, the cultivation effect predicts that today’s teens will grow up with less acceptance of oppression, poverty, starvation, and war. If government officials do not take these concerns seriously though, who knows what might happen?</p>
<p>Nothing is less innocent than a story – except maybe a teen who has taken its message to heart.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/46911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom van Laer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Some parents worry their teens’ obsession with dark fiction means they’ll grow up and overthrow the government – like Katniss Everdeen in Hunger Games. How real is this concern?Tom van Laer, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/445182015-08-04T01:16:17Z2015-08-04T01:16:17ZHow Australian dystopian young adult fiction differs from its US counterparts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89764/original/image-20150727-1384-1ac1cjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The burden of creating a more inclusive, fairer and more tolerant society is carried by the younger generation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hazara/12354289404/in/photolist-jPGXPJ-bHeH3B-ddVoce-5m8uWj-dedhQp-a8id3R-5Ln8Hp-oCwpHC-nzBHVz-8ySdWU-pGdCpy-k84zxe-75ruT2-71GFiq-GH82K-6GHoSg-8mdkpR-a4p64A-5swnhp-dD4Nnv-9d2Ccu-4f4Z3j-4EtVxp-3CPcj-dMN9if-86Lbym-7ThYbk-69mnU-bCo9YS-d1LdiC-p7bKyB-ExMik-WLLeZ-4sNetD-dggsag-DybCe-71CAvr-vFipr-oswLo-71JcRQ-ABAGi-4q5UtC-75vCMH-dD4Nve-5MAF22-d4MsuN-bd1WTM-bd1Nbt-bcZhqg-bd1LFH">Hadi Zaher/Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For children and adolescents, the tyranny of adults can make any world dystopian. Real or fictional – no apocalypse required. But how does our Australian young adult fiction (of the dystopian variety) differ from that being produced in the US? And why do teenagers <a href="http://whatkidsarereading.co.uk/">love dystopia</a> so much? </p>
<p>In recent years, we have seen quite a few blockbuster novels produced for adolescents in this genre. You will no doubt have heard of at least one of these dystopian trilogies from the US: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7938275-the-hunger-games-trilogy-boxset?from_search=true&search_version=service">The Hunger Games</a> (2008-2010) by <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/suzanne-collins-20903551">Suzanne Collins</a>, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17383994-divergent-series-complete-box-set?from_search=true&search_version=service_impr">Divergent</a> (2011-2013) by <a href="http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com.au/">Veronica Roth</a> and the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/493455.The_Uglies_Trilogy?from_search=true&search_version=service">Uglies</a> (2005-2006) by <a href="http://scottwesterfeld.com/">Scott Westerfeld</a>. </p>
<p>Australia has a strong tradition of dystopian fiction for young adults as well. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71865.Tomorrow_When_the_War_Began?from_search=true&search_version=service">Tomorrow, When the War Began</a> and the accompanying six books in the Tomorrow series (1993–99) by John Marsden is, of course, one of the favourites, although it isn’t set in a post-apocalyptic world – rather, we see teenagers fighting and surviving in a current war.</p>
<p>Lesser known dystopian Australian novels – although no less noteworthy – include <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2147352.Taronga?from_search=true&search_version=service">Taronga</a> by Victor Kelleher (1986), <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47916.Obernewtyn?from_search=true&search_version=service">The Obernewtyn Chronicles</a> by Isobelle Carmody (1987-2015) and, more recently, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13552764-the-interrogation-of-ashala-wolf?from_search=true&search_version=service">The Tribe: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf</a> (2012) and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18459857-the-disappearance-of-ember-crow">The Disappearance of Ember Crow</a> (2013), both by Aboriginal author <a href="http://ambelin-kwaymullina.com.au/#!/page_About">Ambelin Kwaymullina</a>. </p>
<h2>Disasters in the US and Australia</h2>
<p>There are many similarities between the Australian and US novels. All of those mentioned above are post-apocalyptic and all indicate a man-made disaster involving war, environmental destruction or nuclear disaster. </p>
<p>The Obernewtyn Chronicles are post-nuclear-holocaust and Taronga is post-war, probably nuclear. The events of The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf play out after a man-made environmental disaster. </p>
<p>The US novels cover similar ground: events in The Hunger Games follow an environmental disaster and war, while Uglies has an original disaster – a virus that infects petroleum products and causes them to explode, resulting in widespread environmental degradation. In Divergent, it’s a bit harder to tell which disaster struck, but it was probably a war.</p>
<p>Other commonalities between the US and Australian dystopian novels are <a href="https://theconversation.com/rebel-heroines-of-teenage-fiction-could-inspire-the-next-generation-38182">feisty heroines</a>, persecution of individuals because of special abilities and a primitive future that looks like our past – that is, communities living basic agrarian lifestyles, whether openly or in hiding. </p>
<p>All of these novels depict oppressive regimes that persecute the young protagonists – the burden of creating a more inclusive, fairer and more tolerant society is carried by the younger generation.</p>
<p>With so much in common between the Australian and American novels, is there anything that sets our home-grown dystopias apart from their US counterparts? </p>
<p>There are two main points of difference: the role of the natural environment, and the use of technology or “the fantastic” to fight battles and change society. </p>
<h2>A healthy relationship with nature</h2>
<p>In Obernewtyn, The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf <em>and</em> Taronga, the stories are set almost exclusively in a natural – rather than an urban – landscape. Those natural worlds are not distinctly Australian. Obernewtyn feels far more like a European landscape. </p>
<p>The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf seems to be set against a hybrid of the two, with some local elements, such as a forest of tuarts and peppermint gums, but with some unfamiliar wildlife such as “saurs” – giant lizard- or crocodile-like carnivorous reptiles. Taronga is split between a very recognisable Australian bush and Taronga Zoo, Sydney. </p>
<p>But it’s not just the use of the natural world that distinguishes the Australian texts – it’s also the relationship the young characters have with the environment and animals. </p>
<p>In all three Australian novels, there are characters who have the ability to communicate with animals via telepathic means. There are differences in the role of animals in these stories, but animals are always characters, not just companions, pets or beasts of burden. </p>
<p>Both Taronga and The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf include elements of Australian Aboriginal legend and connection with the natural world. In the Australian novels, the characters are at home in the wild, at one with nature and find support in the natural world. The environment can be harsh in these novels, but it also provides comfort and sustenance. </p>
<p>Of course, Uglies and The Hunger Games are not devoid of nature. The rebels in the Uglies series are referred to as “Smokies” and live a rustic and somewhat precarious life in the wild; while protagonist Tally Youngblood admires the beauty of this natural setting. Her time with the Smokies is spent trying to bring order to the natural world. The Hunger Games protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, has to survive in the simulated “natural” world of the arena – using skills to hunt for food. </p>
<p>These relationships with the environment and the animal world are one area in which the Australian novels make use of the fantastic as a plot element. </p>
<h2>Weilding technology or magic</h2>
<p>In The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf, most of the young characters (including the protagonist, Ashala Wolf) have special abilities that are the cause of their persecution. This is the same literary device used in The Obernewtyn Chronicles. Abilities include telepathy (with people and animals), control of the environment, healing powers and superhuman physical abilities. </p>
<p>In Taronga, both of the young protagonists (Ben and Ellie) communicate with animals – Ben through a telepathic link and Ellie through strongly developed empathy. In all three books of this trilogy those shamanic abilities allow the youngsters to succeed against adult adversaries. </p>
<p>The US teen characters have well-above-average physical and mental abilities, but these are less intrinsic qualities and more the result of training or surgery (Uglies) – they are technical skills of fighting, knife throwing or shooting, and are not linked with anything mystical or with the greater natural world.</p>
<p>All of these stories are set in worlds rich with technology, surveillance equipment, advanced computers and a blurring of the man/ machine interface, with the exception of Taronga, which was written before our current computer age. But Taronga is themed on a spiritual return to nature and an escape from the urban world. </p>
<p>Perhaps Australian authors cling to a romantic ideal of childhood and see that the solution to environmental degradation and war can only come about through a return to nature. Maybe their US peers envisage technical skill as the attribute most needed in the young to save the human race from annihilation. </p>
<p>Given the huge success of the American novels, it appears that this picture of themselves is the one contemporary adolescents prefer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diana Hodge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are many similarities between blockbusting young adult novels such as The Hunger Games series and Australian books such as Taronga – but there are also clear differences in their messages for the young.Diana Hodge, Manager Academic Library Services, Casual Lecturer in the School of Communication, International Studies and Languages, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.