“What’s the Point of Having a Voice If You’re Gonna Be Silent?”: Youth Activism in Young Adult Literature
Sean P. Connors and Roberta Seelinger Trites also explore the
confrontation of ideas, although in literature aimed at a different
audience, in “‘What’s the Point of Having a Voice If You’re Gonna
Be Silent?’: Youth Activism in Young Adult Literature.” The authors discuss how young adult (YA) literature, a genre often underestimated and seen as superficial due to its young readership and mainstream success, can effectively offer its readers “a blueprint
for engaging in activism” (68). The authors discuss how two North
American novels—The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017) and
The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017)—navigate the neoliberal emphasis on individual success, often characteristic of the
exceptional protagonists of YA literature. Novels that present young
readers with alternatives to this discourse—such as those that
highlight the power of collectivity and ancestral knowledge—can
help young activists “understand themselves as agentic people who have the capacity to resist” systemic oppression (68).