Leiden University Student Repository

Schreurs, Maike (2023)

"I Came to Heal You": Representations of Trauma in Young Adult Literature: Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why, and Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls

Master thesis | Educatie in de Taal en cultuurwetenschappen: Engels (120 EC) (MA)

This paper examines representations of trauma in Young Adult literature, mainly the so-called “problem novel”. These types of novels are becoming increasingly popular among youngsters. Though teenagers enjoy them, parents frequently express their concerns about the age-appropriateness of the content and subject matter. By analysing the novels The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, and A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, this study illustrates that these novels try to resemble trauma by means of stylistic features. These features include absence, repetition, indirection, and belatedness. The authors not only chose to incorporate these into their narratives, but also in their choice of lay-out, which allows for an increased immersion and engagement of the reader with the text.

trauma theory

trauma narratives

Young Adult literature

Problem novel

absence

repetition

indirection

belatedness

Author

Schreurs, Maike

Faculty

ICLON

Supervisors

Dam, H.D.J. van

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en