Invisible Forces - Construction of Authority in Young Adult Fiction

Abstract

Young adult fiction is principally concerned with the construction of the subjectivities of its protagonists, notably with their quests for identity and meaning in their lives. In the creation of characters and stories, the negotiation of relationships with authorities and possibilities for individual power, agency, and freedom are thematically important. As well as considering the implied authority of writers and researchers, this paper will explore the representation of authority in a number of contemporary Australian young adult novels, particularly the way it is evoked through the ideologies conveyed in the stories and their meanings. Recent scholarship claims that no text is innocent, that all stories are ideological. While writers sometimes attempt explicitly to manipulate readers’ interpretations and meaning-making, ideologies expressed implicitly can be more powerful because ‘implicit, and therefore invisible, ideological positions are invested with legitimacy through the implication that things are simply “so” ’ (Stephens 1992). Further, ideologies are often conveyed unconsciously as ‘a large part of any book is written not by its author but by the world its author lives in’ (Hollindale 1988) and hence the temporal, spacial, and cultural settings in which the novel is written exert considerable authority in its production. In considering the narrative construction of concepts of power, agency, and freedom in the selected novels and the guiding ideological authority imposed by their authors, I claim that no space in the writing is free of the grip of authority and power play that has, either explicitly or implicitly, constructed the authors and their work.