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Life Narratives and Youth Culture

Representation, Agency and Participation

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Kate Douglas

    1. Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Anna Poletti

    1. Monash University, Clayton, Australia

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Combines broader theoretical debates from childhood and youth studies with life narrative scholarship
  • Considers contemporary life writing and new media, and how this represents youth culture and marginalized identities
  • Explores the underrepresented contributions of young people to life writing

Part of the book series: Studies in Childhood and Youth (SCY)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xi
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  2. Young Writers and Life Narrative Encounters

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 3-32

    3. Youth and Revolutionary Romanticism: Young Writers Within and Beyond the Literary Field

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 33-60

  3. Writing War

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 61-61
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    2. War Diaries: Representation, Narration and Mediation

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 63-88

    3. Lost Boys: Child Soldier Memoirs and the Ethics of Reading

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 89-117

  4. Girlhoods Interrupted

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 119-119
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    2. The Riot Grrrl Epistolarium

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 121-148

    3. Impossible Subjects: Addiction and Redemption in Memoirs of Girlhood

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 149-173

  5. Youth Publics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 175-175
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    2. Zine Culture: A Youth Intimate Public

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 177-202

    3. Youth Activism Online: Publics, Practices and Archives

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 203-224

    4. Conclusion: Youth, Agency and Self-Representation: What Cultural Work Can Life Writing Do?

      • Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti
      Pages 225-231

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 233-267
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Keywords

About this book

This book considers the largely under-recognised contribution that young writers have made to life writing genres such as memoir, letter writing and diaries, as well as their innovative use of independent and social media. The authors argue that these contributions have been historically silenced, subsumed within other literary genres, culturally marginalised or co-opted for political ends. Furthermore, the book considers how life narrative is an important means for youth agency and cultural participation. By engaging in private and public modes of self-representation, young people have contested public discourses around the representation of youth, including media, health and welfare, and legal discourses, and found means for re-engaging and re-appropriating self-images and representations. Locating their research within broader theoretical debates from childhood and youth studies: youth creative practice and associated cultural implications; youth citizenship and autonomy; the rightsof the child; generations and power relationships, Poletti and Douglas also position their inquiry within life narrative scholarship and wider discussions of self-representation from the margins, representations of conflict and trauma, and theories of ethical scholarship.

Reviews

“Life Narratives and Youth Culture highlights the diversity in the life writing produced by young authors, including diaries, letters, memoires, zines, blogs and life writing on Facebook. … Life Narratives and Youth Culture is laudable for many reasons. The style is accessible and the arguments are backed up with well selected quotes and source references. … The authors open up a rich field of study that is relevant to many scholars working in children’s literature studies.” (Vanessa Joosen, International Research in Children's Literature, Vol. 11 (1), July, 2018)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

    Kate Douglas

  • Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Anna Poletti

About the authors

Anna Poletti is Associate Professor in English at Utrecht University, Netherlands and a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, Australia. 

Kate Douglas is Associate Professor in the School of Humanities and Creative Arts at Flinders University, Australia. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Life Narratives and Youth Culture

  • Book Subtitle: Representation, Agency and Participation

  • Authors: Kate Douglas, Anna Poletti

  • Series Title: Studies in Childhood and Youth

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55117-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-55116-0Published: 05 January 2017

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-71569-5Published: 21 April 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-55117-7Published: 26 December 2016

  • Series ISSN: 2731-6467

  • Series E-ISSN: 2731-6475

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XI, 267

  • Number of Illustrations: 4 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Youth Culture, Cultural Studies, Literature and Technology/Media

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