SEEKING INFINITY: EXPLORING THE MEANING AND POTENTIAL OF YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE

The category of Young Adult (YA) Literature has experienced tremendous growth in terms of readership and works produced over the course of the last fifteen years or so. While there has been some scholarly work done on the category, the research pales in comparison to almost any other facet of literature. For whatever reasons, scholars have largely decided to ignore the changes that have occurred in YA. However, that has not stopped readers from continuing to read these books. In fact, this paper not only addresses the background and what I believe to be the defining characteristics of YA, but also it speaks to who is reading YA, who is avoiding YA, and the reasons behind deciding either way. Specifically, I use Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower to not only illustrate particular incentives that lead people to reading YA, but also to simply demonstrate the literary quality that does in fact reside within the YA category. It is my belief that, just like any other category of literature, YA has numerous benefits that are useful to readers and that, despite those benefits, the category gets an unfairly negative reputation simply because it is associated with teenagers. By thoroughly examining these various aspects of YA, I hope to show that the category is deserving of scholarly attention and that if people are willing to give YA a chance, they just might end up finding some truly amazing books