Trites Begins With a Definition of the YA Novel

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Trites Begins With a Definition of the YA Novel

• Growth is defined by how well a protagonist
  understands the power relationships that define
  his/her life.
• Characters learn how to deal with institutional
  power that resides in schools, government,
  religion, family, etc.

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Adolescent Lit vs. Childrens Lit

• Childrens literature often affirms the childs
  sense of Self and her or his personal power (3).
• in the adolescent novel, protagonists must
  learn about the social forces that have made them
  what they are (3).

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Webers (1864-1920) Definition of Power

• Power is the possibility of imposing ones will
  upon the behavior of other persons which can
  emerge in the most diverse forms (4).

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Althussers (1918-1990) Definition of Power

• Althusser builds upon Webers definition by
  specifying exactly HOW power works within
  society.
• He notes that in the modern world,
  super-structures such as governments and
  corporations use ideology to maintain control
  over populations. Thats why he calls such
  institutions Ideological State Apparatuses.
• In fact, Althusser and others have pointed out
  that ISAs view their basic mission as the
  maintenance of their own existence. It takes a
  HUGE blunder to make people want to tear down an
  ISA.

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Foucaults (1926-1984) Definition of Power

• Foucault refined Althussers ideas by arguing
  that there were really two basic types of power
  relationships, the contract-opposition schema
  and the domination-repression schema.
• Schema is another word for model.

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The Contract-Oppression Model

• This model suggests that all people hold a
  certain degree of power that they voluntarily
  give up in exchange for the benefits of living in
  a structured society.
• For instance, Im willing to accept that I have
  to follow the speed limit and pay my taxes. In
  exchange, the government assures that almost
  everyone follows the speed limit and that roads
  are well-paved. Because the government is
  meeting my infrastructure needs and is insuring
  that I have a relatively decent experience on the
  roads, Im willing to give up my power to drive
  100 mph on US-131.

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The Domination-Repression Model

• This model suggests that economic institutions
  really have the power and that we only possess
  power when we are engaged in the act of spending.
• For example, many government policies are the
  direct result of the wishes of corporations. As
  a result, we can view politics in the US as a
  struggle between accommodating the desires of
  corporations and accommodating the desires of
  the people. The current economic crisis
  illustrates quite effectively the power that
  economics hold over our lives.

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Trites Applies Foucaults Models

• Trites shows how each theory might apply to
  Cormiers The Chocolate War
• The Contract-Oppression Model Jerry breaks his
  contract with the governing power in his refusal
  to sell chocolates, and he is oppressed by that
  institution (represented by The Vigils)
• The Domination-Repression Model Jerry actually
  exists in a chain of power, a chain that involves
  the selling of education as a commodity that
  results in the commodification of chocolates.
  Their sale is a means of production for the
  students. Jerrys power in the situation is
  fluid he both has and does not have power,
  depending upon his relationship to the market
  forces (5). His attempt to influence the
  market leads the market to retaliate.

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Trites Begins to Insert Her Own Ideas into the
Discussion

• At this point, Trites enters into the discussion,
  noting that there are problems with both of
  Foucaults models because neither takes into
  account the idea that individuals can use power
  for positive reasons.
• Instead of viewing power only as a force that
  dominates people from outside, Trites argues that
  people can be transformed internally by their use
  of power.

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Subjectivity

• Lets take a moment to consider the word
  subjectivity, as it is a very important part of
  contemporary discussions of power.
• Subjectivity refers to the ways that we end up
  viewing ourselves as individuals in the world. A
  persons self-knowledge is what determines how
  he/she acts in the world.
• For instance, I have a sense of myself as a
  professor, which means that when I walk into the
  classroom, my behavior is dictated by that
  construct.

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Subjectivity

• Of course, not every professor has the same
  internal understanding of what it means to be a
  professor.
• Keep in mind, too, that my power as a professor
  is controlled by external factors, as well. For
  instance, if I were teaching at a university that
  emphasized a religious worldview, I might be
  expected to put forward that point of view in the
  classroom. Thats one form of power that might
  help to construct my persona in the classroom.
  Or, I might teach in a part of the world where
  women were rarely in positions of power and
  that fact my constrain how I behaved.

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Butlers (1956-) Definition of Power

• When Butler argues that a person is at once
  formed and subordinated by power because power
  not only acts on a subjectbut enacts the
  subject into being, she means that I am both
  influenced by the power structures around me AND,
  in a way, I am powerful because of the
  institution I inhabit.
• Huh? Well, if there werent universities, I
  wouldnt have been able to earn the education
  that enabled me to rejoin a university as part of
  its power structure. As such, I exert power over
  my students as PART of a power structure.
  However, if my students didnt like my teaching,
  they could appeal to the power structure to strip
  me of my power. Moreover, I am now able to help
  form the universitys policies, so I can exert
  power in that way. See how fluid power can be?

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Butlers Definition of Power

• Butler thus concurs with Foucaults analysis
  that power is a process, but her definition
  allows for an internally motivated subject who
  can act proactively rather than solely in terms
  of taking action to prevent oppression or
  repression (5).
• In other words, Butler believes that not every
  action is related to deflecting the power of
  institutions. Sometimes, people act in support
  of their own interests, independent of
  institutions.

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Lacans (1901-1981) Definition of Power

• Lacan asks us to be self-conscious in our
  understanding of how we are part of the power
  structure. Lacan describes individual power in
  terms of assomption the individuals active
  assumption of responsibility for the role into
  which society casts her or him (5-6).
• For instance, my grandpa strongly focused on his
  membership in the UAW. He was both DEFINED by
  his class status and employment and he EMBRACED
  his class status and employment. At the same
  time, he hoped that I would transcend this status.

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Lacans Definition of Power

• Trites then applies Lacans ideas, noting that
  adolescents must reckon with both their sense of
  individual power and their recognition of the
  social forces that require them to modify their
  behaviors (6).
• Trites mentions Karen Coats use of Lacan to
  interpret The Chocolate War, noting that Jerrys
  decision to permanently inhabit the role of rebel
  that is first thrust upon him is an example of
  someone coming to define himself with a role that
  he comes to accept.

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Frenchs (1929-) Definition of Power

• French argues that traditional ways of viewing
  power, from Weber on down to Lacan, assume that
  power always has to do with domination of others.
  She points out that we might want to view power
  a bit differently There is power-to, which
  refers to ability, capacity, and connotes a kind
  of freedom, and there power-over, which refers to
  domination. (6).

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Trites Applies Frenchs Theory

• Trites observes that I am interested in how
  adolescents are empowered (and disempowered) in
  terms that French uses when are teenagers in
  young Adult literature allowed to assume
  responsibility for their own actions and when do
  dominating adults refuse to acknowledge their
  capacities? (6).

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What happened here?

• This section of Trites essay provides a perfect
  illustration of what it means to be a scholar.
• A scholar learns what previous thinkers have
  written about a particular subject.
• Then, the scholar enters into DIALOGUE with those
  previous thinkers, as a way of coming to his/her
  own conclusions.
• Once the scholar has established his/her opinions
  about previous thinkers ideas, the scholar can
  put forward his/her own set of beliefs (at that
  point).

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Trites Now Puts Forward Her Own Definition

• Adolescent characters exist in a perpetual
  relationship of force (Foucault, Power 92)
  created by the institutions that constitute the
  social fabric constructing them. Because they
  are defined within perpetual forces of power,
  power enacts them into being (Butler, Psychic
  13). That is, the social power that constructs
  them bestows upon them a power from which they
  generate their own sense of Subjectivity. As
  acting subjects, they assume responsibility for
  their position in society (Lacan, Science and
  Truth 7), whether they engage their power to
  enable themselves or to repress others (French
  505).

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Trites Definition

• Power is a force that operates within the
  subject and upon the subject in adolescent
  literature teenagers are repressed as well as
  liberated by their own power and by the power of
  the social forces that surround them in these
  books. Much of the genre is thus dedicated to
  depicting how potentially out-of-control
  adolescents can learn to exist within
  institutional structures (7).

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What Defines the Genre of YA Lit?

• Adults create these books as a cultural site in
  which adolescents can be depicted engaging with
  the fluid, market-driven forces that characterize
  the power relationships the define adolescence
  (7).
• After all, publishers set the terms for this
  genre, not kids.
• Trites notes that Young Adult literature shares
  many characteristics with books marketed to
  adults about adolescents (9). Most importantly,
  both focus on development.

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The History of the Bildungsroman

• Trites refers to a number of literary historians,
  as she develops her definition of the
  Bildungsroman. The key insight she derives is
  that the protagonists growth is neither
  accidentalnor simply a matter of normal
  developmental growth rather, the hero
  self-consciously sets out on a quest to achieve
  independence. The Bildungsroman is therefore an
  inherently Romantic genre, with its optimistic
  ending that affirms the protagonists entry into
  adulthood (11-12).

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The History of the Entwicklungsroman

• Trites contrasts the Bildungsroman with the
  Entwicklungsroman, noting that many of the YA
  novels that emerged in the 1970s that have
  subsequently been referred to as problem novels
  are Entwicklungsromane the character grows as
  s/he faces and resolves one specific problem
  (14).

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Why This Emphasis on Growth?

• On some implicit leveladolescent literature is
  at its heart a romantic literature because so
  many of us authors, critics, teachers,
  teenagers need to believe in the possibility of
  adolescent growth (15).
• Trites goes on to note that contemporary authors
  may be calling this romanticism of individual
  growth into question the postmodern era
  influenced authors to explore what it means if we
  define people as socially constructed subjects
  rather than as self-contained individuals bound
  by their identities (16).

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From Romanticism to Postmodernism

• During the Romantic Era, social institutions
  were viewed as forces that bolstered the
  individual and his/her development.
• During the Modern Era, social institutions were
  viewed as the opponents of an individuals desire
  to define him or herself apart from the influence
  of those very social institutions.
• During the Postmodern Era, individuals have
  come to recognize that they are defined by the
  economic forces that exist around them in every
  institution.

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Shifts in the Way the Purpose of Adolescence is
Defined
Era Adolescents Relationship to Society
Romantic Era (1800-1900) Individual grows into an adulthood of autonomy and self-determination (18). Focus on the transformative power of maturity (18).
Modern Era (1900-1960) Maturity often takes the form of a conscious rejection of society (18).
Post-modern Era (1960-Pres) An individuals growth is marked largely in terms of his/her increased participation in capitalism (18).

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The Contemporary YA Novel

• Rather than transcending or separating from ones
  environment, the Postmodern Self recognizes how
  one EXISTS WITHIN society.
• In the contemporary world, growth is defined as
  an increasing awareness of the institutions
  constructing the individual (19).
• The YA novel teaches adolescents how to exist
  within the (capitalistically bound) institutions
  that necessarily define teenagers existence
  (19).