Where are you from?: locating the young adult self within and beyond the text. Issue 3 (3rd May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Spring, Erin
• Is Part Of: Children's geographies. Volume 14:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 356
• Page End: 371
• Publication Date: 2016-05-03
• Subjects: place -- space -- identity -- young adults -- reading; Geographical perception in children -- Periodicals; 305.23
• DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2015.1055456
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1473-3285

Abstract

Abstract : This article explores the interconnections between young adult (YA) fiction and three YA readers' constructions of place within and beyond the text. It employs a qualitative, multiple case study design, and utilizes discussion groups, semi-structured interviews, and the creation of place-journals to interpret some of the ways in which three YA readers, from two contrasting Canadian communities, respond to how place and place-identity are construed within their own lives, and within two YA fiction texts. Drawing on geography theory and reader-response criticism, it offers a critical description of the moment in time when these texts, these readers, and the researcher met as part of a reading transaction, within a particular time and space. I argue that these YA readers are aware of the role of place within their own lives, and that they use these individualized constructions to shape their encounters with these texts.