Troubled Teens and Monstrous Others: Problematic Depictions of Characters with Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2376-5275.2015.1.1.215-253Abstract
Young adult literature has never shied away from taboo topics, particularly if the topics effect or concern adolescents. Recent studies have indicated that one fifth of the American population, about 50 million people including children and adults, live with some form of mental illness. Mental illness is clearly an issue that impacts young people, yet there are very few examples of authentic representations of characters with profound mental illness in young adult (YA) literature. This article discusses two texts that contribute to stereotypes about mental illness.
References
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Trites, R.S. (2000). Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.
Waller, A. (2009). Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic Realism. New York, NY: Routledge.
Austin, J., & Willard, M. N. (Eds.). (1998). Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Blum, V. (1995). Hide and Seek: The Child Between Psychoanalysis and Fiction. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Campbell, D. (1978). "Lunacy and the Moon." Psychological Bulletin 85 (5), 1123-1129. <a href='https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.85.5.1123'>https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.85.5.1123</a>
Chesler, P. (1972/2005). Women and Madness. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Dowdall, G. (1996). The Eclipse of the State Mental Hospital: Policy, Stigma, and Organization. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.
Easton Ellis, B. (1991). American Psycho. New York, NY: Vintage Contemporaries.
Foucault, M. (1988). Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. New York, NY: Random Books.
Getis, V. (1998). "Experts and Juvenile Delinquency, 1990-1935." In J. Austin & M. N. Willard (Eds.), Generations of Youth: Youth Cultures and History in Twentieth-Century America. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Giroux, H. (2012). Disposable Youth: Racialized Memories and the Culture of Cruelty. New York, NY: Routledge.
Sparks, B. (1971/2006). Go Ask Alice. New York, NY: Simon Pulse.
Grob, G. (1980). "Abuse in American Mental Hospitals in Historical Perspective: Myth and Reality." International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 3, 295-310. <a href='https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(80)90009-6'>https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-2527(80)90009-6</a>
Horwitz, A. (2002). Creating Mental Illness. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kidd, K. (2011). Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children's Literature. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. <a href='https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816675821.001.0001'>https://doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816675821.001.0001</a>
King, S. (1987). Misery. New York, NY: Viking Adult Press.
Larbalestier, J. (2009). Liar. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
MacKay, S.Y. (2010). My Schizophrenic Life: The Road to Recovery from Mental Illness. Ontario, Canada: Bridgeross Communications.
Meyer Spack, P. (1981). The Adolescent Idea: Myths of Youth and the Adult Imagination. New York, NY: Basic.
Palahniuk, C. (1996). Fight Club. New York, NY: WW Norton & Co.
Ross, M. (2008). Schizophrenia: Medicine's Mystery, Society's Shame. Retrieved from Amazon.com
Roux, M. (2013). Asylum. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.
Saks, E. R. (2007). The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. New York, NY: Hyperion.
Schiller, L., & Bennett, A. (1994). The Quiet Room: A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness. New York, NY: Warner Books.
Slick, G. (1967). "White Rabbit." [Recorded by Jefferson Airplane]. Surrealistic Pillow [CD]. RCA. [2003].
Steele, K., & Berman, C. (2001). The Day the Voices Stopped. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Taylor Stewart, C. (1909). The Origin of the Werewolf Superstition. In W.G. Brown (Ed), University of Missouri Studies. Missouri: University of Missouri Press.
Tribunella, E. (2010). Melancholia and Maturation: The Use of Trauma in American Children's Literature. Knoxville, TN: The University of Tennessee Press.
Trites, R.S. (2000). Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.
Waller, A. (2009). Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic Realism. New York, NY: Routledge.
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Published
2015-05-31
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Critical Studies
