"A arte imita a vida, ou talvez seja o contrário": a adolescência contemporânea e os livros juvenis de Alice Oseman

Abstract

Adolescence – as a biological, psychological, social, historical and cultural phenomenon –, has multiple understandings throughout society. Once the teenagers engage with those aspects, they internalize, reproduce and appropriate them in their life. One of the ways this exchange happens is literature, is specific the young adult genre. Those texts can either propagate a “standard” of the teenage experience, or help it’s readers in this developmental challenging moment. This study aims to identify, describe and analise the relationship between young adult literature and the contemporary concept os adolescence, as a multifaceted phenomenon. To do so, three Alice Oseman’s books – Solitaire (2014), Radio Silence (2016) and Loveless (2021) – were read, analysed and later had snippets selected and separated in 8 thematic groups: teenaged and the “normal” experience; their relation with the Internet; their relationship with educational environments; mental health; familial relationships; the beginning of the romantic and sexual experiences; and the relationship wih art and subjectivity. Analyzing these themes, it was noticed that Oseman’s books presents important representations of contemporary adolescence, explaining the daily process of development and formation of the personality of protagonists who distance themselves from what was expected of them to get closer to what they want for themselves. Representing teenagers who do not fit in the standarts, Oseman’s books can help teenage readers in the processes and changes faced in adolescence