Young-adult Fiction week 1－sweetannie的部落格

Week One (2015. 2.26)---Orientation

two category of English-literature learning: genre & period
when 2 nouns come together (compound noun) --- define the later noun first

e.g. Young-adult fiction

define 'fiction"→"young-adult"→young-adult fiction

Coming-of-age 時候到了/成熟

In genre studies, a coming-of-age story is a genre of literature and film that focuses on the growth of a protagonist from youth to adulthood ("coming of age"). Coming-of-age stories tend to emphasize dialogue or internal monologue over action, and are often set in the past. The subjects of coming-of-age stories are typically males in their mid teens. The bildungsroman is a specific subgenre of coming-of-age story. It is especially prominent in literature and focuses on the protagonist's psychological and moral growth, and thus character change is extremely important.

examples: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (literature), Stand by Me (film)

Adolescence (puberty) 性功能完全 (able to produce)

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood. The period of adolescence is most closely associated with the teenage years, though its physical, psychological and cultural expressions may begin earlier and end later. For example, although puberty has been historically associated with the onset of adolescent development, it now typically begins prior to the teenage years and there has been a normative shift of it occurring in preadolescence, particularly in females. Physical growth, as distinct from puberty (particularly in males), and cognitive development generally seen in adolescence, can also extend into the early twenties. Thus chronological age provides only a rough marker of adolescence, and scholars have found it difficult to agree upon a precise definition of adolescence.

Social Novels

The social novel, also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works, include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labor, violence against women, rising criminality, and epidemics because of over-crowding, and poor sanitation in cities.

e.g. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Robert Burns

Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a light Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.

Poem: Comin 'Thro' the Rye

Conan Doyle --- Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a graduate of the University of Education Medical School. A London-based "consulting detective" whose abilities border on the fantastic, Holmes is known for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to adopt almost any disguise and his use of forensic science to solve difficult cases.