Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature

Kathryn James teaches children's literature at Deakin University, Melbourne. Her publications have appeared in Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature in Education, and New Talents 21C.

• Series Editor’s ForewordAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Beginning with Endings: Death in Children’s LiteratureChapter One: Points of Departure: Death, Culture, RepresentationChapter Two: Matilda’s Last Dance: Death and Historical FictionChapter Three: Verisimilitude: Representing Death "In the Real"Chapter Four: Beyond Consensus Reality: Death and Fantasy FictionChapter Five: Imagined Futures: Death and the Post-Disaster NovelConclusion: Mapping the Landscape: The Unknown CountryNotesBibliographyIndex

"Death is universal and inevitable, which is precisely why James (Deakin Univ, Melbourne, Australia) believes its frequent appearance in adolescent literature, to date little studied, is a topic worthy of analysis...James makes a good case for the application of her ideas to other Anglophone literature, and without doubt she breaks new ground in the study of a topic widely represented in fiction for teens, yet not widely studied...Recommended."-- Choice, June 2009'Uncompromising in its refusal to sentimentalise either adolescent experience or its representation, Death, Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Adolescent Literature forces its readers to confront what is at stake in the ideologies underlying fiction for young adults.' - Shelley King, Times Higher Education Supplement