by Melanie D. Koss and William H. Teale
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| image from JAAL |
One of the aspects of modern YA that Koss and Teale identify is increasingly more complex narrative structures, with features such as alternating narrators, use of flashbacks and flash forwards, and the inclusion of poetry, epistolary, or other non-linear fiction. They write, “The reading of texts written using multiple narrative perspectives can offer challenges to teen readers and parallel the piecing together of information that is becoming common in their everyday lives. These novels require readers to follow several different strands, perhaps out of linear order, presented through different voices or narrators, and sometimes with conflicting information and unreliable narrators.”
Increasingly complex narrative structures mirror adult fiction that is also more complex, and provide a view of a more complex world, where various media all compete for attention. I agree that making sense of the various inputs requires a multi-faceted approach. It only makes sense that modern literature is increasingly multi-modal, fragmented, and complex. As Koss and Teale point out, “Adolescents have to learn to make sense of all of the available information, judge what is accurate and what is biased, and be selective in the information they accept.”
Koss, M. D. and Teale, W. H. (2009). What's Happening in YA Literature? Trends in Books for Adolescents. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(7), pp. 563-571.
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