The Productive Potential of Anger in Young Adult Literature as a Force for Social Change

• In Event: Responding to Literature: Strategies to Raise Critical Consciousness

Abstract

We use Critical Content Analysis (Short, 2016) and Ahmed’s (2004) cultural politics of emotions to analyze two exemplar YA novels that both thematically explore anger from the perspectives of race and gender: Mark Oshiro’s (2018) Anger is a Gift and Jenny Downham’s (2020) Furious Thing. Our analysis pushes against the hegemonic standardization of Social Emotional Learning, providing an alternative way of bringing critical analysis of emotions into the classroom in nuanced, realistic, and socially, culturally, politically and critically attuned ways. We assert that these two books can and should be used to critically discuss the productive potential of anger in the face of injustice related to race and gender.

Authors

• Alyssa Chrisman, The Ohio State University

• Suzanne G Lewis, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Caroline T. Clark, The Ohio State University - Columbus