Advertisement

Children's Literature in Education

, Volume 49, Issue 2, pp 87–100 | Cite as

Treading Water: Considering Adolescent Characters in Moratorium

  • Julia Pond
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Adolescent literature often seeks to examine the emotional, psychological, and physical growth of adolescents. Psychologists, sociologists, and childhood studies experts have all claimed the importance of adolescence as a time of identity formation. Erik Erikson provides an apt term for this important phase in an individual’s life: moratorium, “a psychosocial stage between childhood and adulthood” that particularly lends itself to a time of exploration and discovery (p. 263). Erikson and one of his successors in adolescent identity development research, James Marcia, use this term to define this stage of exploration because, at this point, the individual suspends her identity formation process in order to explore the options. This pause, although consisting of active experimentation, gives the adolescent time to discover identity options before moving forward in the process. It is often this very process of exploration and discovery that authors depict in adolescent literature. By choosing to analyze the moratorium stage of adolescent characters, scholars, teachers, and caregivers can more easily recognize the ideology embedded within the text and the options authors showcase for adolescent identity.

Keywords

Adolescent Moratorium Identity development Young adult literature 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Adams, Gerald R. (1992). Introduction. In Adams, Gerald R., Thomas P., Gullotta and Raymond Montemayor (Eds.), Adolescent Identity Formation (pp. 1–8). Newbury Park: Sage.Google Scholar
  2. American Library Association. (n.d.). Young Adult Library Services Association. Accessed December 14, 2014 from http://www.ala.org/yalsa/aboutyalsa/mission%26vision/yalsamission.
  3. Best, Rebecca H. (2009). Panopticism and the Use of ‘the Other’ in To Kill a Mockingbird. Mississippi Quarterly, 62, 541–552.Google Scholar
  4. Coats, Karen. (2004). Looking Glasses and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children’s Literature Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Coulter, Natalie. (2012). From Toddlers to Teens: The Colonization of Childhood the Disney Way. Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, 4(1), 146–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Crocetti, Elisabetta, Rubini, Monica and Meeus, Wim. (2008). Capturing the Dynamics of Identity Formation in Various Ethnic Groups: Development and Validation of a Three-Dimensional Model. Journal of Adolescence., 31, 207–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Erikson, Erik. (1963/1950). Childhood and Society. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
  8. Grotevant, Harold D. (1992). Assigned and Chosen Identity Components: A Process Perspective on Their Integration. In Gerald R. Adams, Thomas P. Gullotta and Raymond Montemayor (Eds.), Adolescent Identity Formation (pp. 73–90). Newbury Park: Sage.Google Scholar
  9. Kelly, Jacqueline. (2009). The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
  10. Klimstra, Theo A., William W. Hale III, Quinten A.W. Raaijmakers, Susan J.T. Branje and Wim H.J. Meeus. (2010). Identity Formation in Adolescence: Change or Stability? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 150–162Google Scholar
  11. Lee, Harper. (1960). To Kill A Mockingbird New York: Grand Central Publishing.Google Scholar
  12. Marcia, James E. (1966). Development and Validation of Ego-Identity Status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5), 551–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Martin, Michelle. (2001). Let Freedom Ring: Land, Liberty, Literacy, and Lore in Mildred Taylor’s Logan Family Novels. In Julia L. Mickenberg and Lynne Vallone (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Children’s Literature (pp. 371–388). Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
  14. McCallum, Robyn. (1999). Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction: The Dialogic Construction of Subjectivity New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
  15. McCullers, Carson. (1946). The Member of the Wedding Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
  16. Nelson, R.A. (2009). Days of Little Texas New York: Random House.Google Scholar
  17. Nodelman, Perry. (2008). The Hidden Adult: Defining Children’s Literature Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP.Google Scholar
  18. Patterson, Serena J., Sochting, Ingrid and Marcia, James E. (1992). The Inner Space and Beyond: Women and Identity. In Gerald R. Adams, Thomas P. Gullotta and Raymond Montemayor (Eds.), Adolescent Identity Formation (pp. 9–24). Newbury Park: Sage.Google Scholar
  19. Rose, Jacqueline. (1993). The Case of Peter Pan or The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
  20. Roth, Veronica. (2011–2013). Divergent Trilogy. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
  21. Seidel, Kathryn Lee. (2007). Growing Up Southern: Resisting the Code for Southerners in To Kill A Mockingbird. In Alice Hall Petry (Ed.), On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections (pp. 79–92). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
  22. Steig, Michael. (1993). Never Going Home: Reflections on Reading, Adulthood, and the Possibility of Children’s Literature. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 18(1), 36–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Taylor, Mildred DeLois. (1976). Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry New York: Dial.Google Scholar
  24. Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel. (1994/1954). The Fellowship of the Rings. New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
  25. Trites, Roberta Seelinger. (1994). Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.Google Scholar
  26. Tween. (2015). Def. 2. The Oxford English Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Shorter UniversityRomeUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options