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Sex and Sexuality in Young Adult Literature
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From: Jane Thomsen <Jane.Thomsen_at_vuw.ac.nz>
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 22:39:20 +0000
Hello everyone I have been lurking on this list for about a month, and reading the discussions with great interest. The most recent topic is very timely from a New Zealand perspective. The 2013 winner of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Award was “Into the River” by Ted Dawe. Aimed at older teens, the suitability of its content has been challenged multiple times. There is an excellent blog entry by Emma Neale, who undertook the initial assessment and editing of the book:
“I strongly believe that literature is one of the places that young people can safely think through situations, and rehearse their moral choices, without the grave personal compromise that living through the real events might involve. Forewarned is forearmed. The novel is aimed at ages 15+: the sex scenes are unromanticised, and speak the truth of unsatisfactory experiences. Yes, they’re awkward, raw, discomfiting. That’s part of the point. They happen in the context of a young, disenfranchised teenager trying to grapple with a loss of identity and with institutionalised racism, casual racism, and classist attitudes; with a life where the moral compass seems skewed to the powerful and those with a dubious authority. The sex scenes have to be read in context. If readers read the entire book, they’ll see that the main character, Devon, is left hurt, bewildered, empty, and wanting more than the casual encounters he’s had. The point isn’t the sex: it’s what the sex represents. The real tragedy is that Devon has nobody to talk to about what happens to him. He’s deeply isolated; the hunger for something wild and explosive that grows out of his failed relationship with the first teenage girl he has sex with, the craving for anarchy, is a channelling of pain and inarticulacy.” (Read more…<http://emmaneale.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/book-banning-and-ted-dawes-into-the-river/>) A complaint was made to the New Zealand Office of Film & Literature Classification in August 2013 which was initially ruled unrestricted<http://www.teddawe.com/Censors%20report%20on%20Into%20the%20River.pdf>. A subsequent review<http://www.classificationoffice.govt.nz/search-for-a-classification/archive-recent-decisions-of-the-classification-office.html> in January 2014 amended this to R14. Kind regards
Jane Thomsen Subject Librarian (Education) Victoria University Library | Te Pâtaka Kôrero Victoria University of Wellington | Te Whare Wânanga o te Űpoko o te Ika a Mâui PO Box 3438, Wellington, New Zealand http://www.victoria.ac.nz/library jane.thomsen_at_vuw.ac.nz<mailto:jane.thomsen_at_vuw.ac.nz>
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Received on Wed 05 Mar 2014 04:40:14 PM CST
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 22:39:20 +0000
Hello everyone I have been lurking on this list for about a month, and reading the discussions with great interest. The most recent topic is very timely from a New Zealand perspective. The 2013 winner of the New Zealand Post Children’s Book Award was “Into the River” by Ted Dawe. Aimed at older teens, the suitability of its content has been challenged multiple times. There is an excellent blog entry by Emma Neale, who undertook the initial assessment and editing of the book:
“I strongly believe that literature is one of the places that young people can safely think through situations, and rehearse their moral choices, without the grave personal compromise that living through the real events might involve. Forewarned is forearmed. The novel is aimed at ages 15+: the sex scenes are unromanticised, and speak the truth of unsatisfactory experiences. Yes, they’re awkward, raw, discomfiting. That’s part of the point. They happen in the context of a young, disenfranchised teenager trying to grapple with a loss of identity and with institutionalised racism, casual racism, and classist attitudes; with a life where the moral compass seems skewed to the powerful and those with a dubious authority. The sex scenes have to be read in context. If readers read the entire book, they’ll see that the main character, Devon, is left hurt, bewildered, empty, and wanting more than the casual encounters he’s had. The point isn’t the sex: it’s what the sex represents. The real tragedy is that Devon has nobody to talk to about what happens to him. He’s deeply isolated; the hunger for something wild and explosive that grows out of his failed relationship with the first teenage girl he has sex with, the craving for anarchy, is a channelling of pain and inarticulacy.” (Read more…<http://emmaneale.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/book-banning-and-ted-dawes-into-the-river/>) A complaint was made to the New Zealand Office of Film & Literature Classification in August 2013 which was initially ruled unrestricted<http://www.teddawe.com/Censors%20report%20on%20Into%20the%20River.pdf>. A subsequent review<http://www.classificationoffice.govt.nz/search-for-a-classification/archive-recent-decisions-of-the-classification-office.html> in January 2014 amended this to R14. Kind regards
Jane Thomsen Subject Librarian (Education) Victoria University Library | Te Pâtaka Kôrero Victoria University of Wellington | Te Whare Wânanga o te Űpoko o te Ika a Mâui PO Box 3438, Wellington, New Zealand http://www.victoria.ac.nz/library jane.thomsen_at_vuw.ac.nz<mailto:jane.thomsen_at_vuw.ac.nz>
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Received on Wed 05 Mar 2014 04:40:14 PM CST
