Date of Award

2000

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Honours

School

School of Language and Literature

Faculty

Faculty of Community Services, Education and Social Sciences

Abstract

The purpose of my thesis· A Queer Love: The Gay Male in Young Adult Literature -is to offer an analysis of seven young adult novels that incorporate the construction and representation of while male homosexuality. I intend to explore what it is that can be learnt from these texts about 'being gay'. It is my assertion that I will be able to show that, although taboos have been shifted in young adult literature to allow the exploration of issues relating to gay adolescence, that which is condoned as acceptable 'gay behavior' remains restricted. I propose that in order for gay adolescents to gain a positive reading from a young adult text incorporating homosexuality, those responsible for the production of these texts must move away from promulgating stereotypes of the gay man. What these texts need to focus on is ensuring that homophobia becomes as socially unacceptable as racism has become at the end of the twentieth century. Throughout my thesis I will be endeavoring to place the texts that I am using in to a cultural context which will reflect the influence upon young adult literature by a variety of groups. These include authors, publishers, educators, librarians and parents. Another important influence upon the production of Young Adult Literature is the society in which it is produced. For this reason I have selected texts from North America, Great Britain and Australia in order to investigate how these factors converge to shape the construction of homosexual characters in Young Adult Literature.

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