The Realistic Turn: Trends in Recent Australian Young Adult Fiction

Abstract

In lieu of abstract, here is the first paragraph of the article:

During the 1980s and 1990s Australian young adult fiction tended to be dominated by a genre of realism that featured the works of John Marsden as a kind of flagship. Robert Cormier's endorsement of Marsden as 'a major writer who deserves world-wide acclaim' was proclaimed in the marketing hype for Marsden's books. Many critics highlighted the literary realism of Marsden's works, as for instance. Watson (2001) who asserted that Marsden writes convincing, accessible first-person narratives about contemporary teenagers' (p.468) and Saxby (1997) who described the Tomorrow books as a 'deservedly successful adventure’ series, ‘in the Southall tradition’ (p.227). The blurb on the flycover of The Third Day the Frost (1995), trumpets Marsden's 'reputation for writing realistic books that tackle tough issues', and media reviews chant similar mantras: "action, adventure and heart-stopping danger", or tense, exciting and, most importantly, realistic'. Saxby (1993) has also praised Marsden's capacity to produce characters that emerge as 'real' with voices that 'so many of today's young adults would like to have' (p.694). These qualities are also lauded by critics of other realistic novels of the period, such as Sonya Hartnett’s Sleeping Dogs, which was praised by the Children's Book Council of Australia Judges' Report as 'a tough story, evocatively told' (p.9). Craven (2003) has claimed the essence of realism is in embracing the shapes and smells of contemporary life' and in the entertainment value of someone else's experience, preferably of an intimate kind' (p.11) while Saxby (1997) has pointed out that social realism in Australian YA (young adult) novels has dealt with personal experiences such as ‘[d]ivorce, single parenting, delinquency, kids forced into homelessness, disruptive teenagers and disturbed primary school students' (p.267-8) and he has further suggested that the core of this realism lies in the selection of ‘some significant experience from everyday life' and the exploration of its ‘implications for the people involved' (p.248).