Interpretive Play: Using Critical Perspectives to Teach Young Adult Literature

by Anna O. Soter, Theresa M. Rogers

A useful tool for in-service and pre-service teachers, undergraduate or graduate classes, or teacher-educators who want fresh approaches to teaching and analyzing Young Adult Literature, this new book describes powerful, exciting practical applications of complex ideas with Post-Structuralist theoretical approaches to literature. These critical perspectives will help readers interpret literature, foster an understanding of some of the major theoretical issues in today s culture, and allow for an open dialogue in the classroom. The authors accurately adapt these dense critical perspectives and theories into readily available classroom strategies. Some of the most recurring critical perspectives for analyzing literature in the volume Louise Rosenblatt s Reader Response criticism, Feminist criticism, Deconstruction, Queer Theory, and analyses of Power. The authors wide range of texts includes graphic novels, hypertexts, and film adaptations as supplements for Young Adult novels. References are compiled at the end of each chapter so that extra materials can be sought easily. Examples of students work, classroom case studies as vignettes and discussion dialogue cues can be found throughout the volume. Provides activities which will be easy to incorporate into any Young Adult Literature classroom.

264 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008