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Let’s write about sex – YA fiction as a means of learning about sexuality
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Let’s write about sex – YA fiction as a means of learning about sexuality

Sara Hutchinson
New Writing, Vol.13(2), pp.315-325
2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790726.2016.1168849
Appears in  UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection
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https://doi.org/10.1080/14790726.2016.1168849View
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Abstract

sexuality young adult fiction didacticism transactional reader response theory dual narration first person authentic voice UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages
Judy Blume's seminal 1975 novel Forever is commonly referred to as a sex instruction manual for teenagers in the form of a novel. My doctoral project 'A 21st Century Forever: Learning about Sexuality through Young Adult Fiction' explores how the creative writer can present honest candid sex scenes for teenagers that provide information while avoiding overt didacticism. Drawing upon Louise Rosenblatt's Transactional Reader Response theory, this project supposes that the young adult reader can be engaged not didactically but aesthetically and upon further reflection learn from the fictional experience. This paper discusses how narrational point of view can be utilised to both avoid overt didacticism and imbue honesty into the narrative. By comparing two young adult novels that both utilise dual narration with two main protagonists yet use either first or mainly restricted third person voice and in an exegetical analysis of my own work in progress novel which is a dual narrative with a singular voice written in both first and restricted third person, I explore how the choice of narrator impacts the instructional nature of the text and how honest the sex scenes are for a young adult audience.

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