Consuming Identities: Identity and Agency in Adolescent Transactions With Branded Young Adult Literature

• In Event: 25.049 - Critically Engaging With Children's and Young Adult Literature by, About, and With Latinas/os

Abstract

This study explored how a group of Hispanic youth read between and across print, media, and material branded YA fiction texts, critically analyzing how participants made sense of these texts through social interactions and considering the ethical and political implications of their engagement in the literature. Popular young adult literature is increasingly transmediated and commercially “branded” (Sekeres, 2009), positioning these books as only one product of many in a franchise. The widespread appeal of YA literature, its increasing commodification, and concomitant concerns about its diminishing literary quality and consumerist socialization of youth make the present an especially important moment to learn more about how adolescents make sense of branded fiction in their reading experiences.

Author

• Nora Peterman, University of Missouri - Kansas City