The Immigrant Girl and the Western Boyfriend : The Romance Plot in Young Adult Novels of Migration

• We explore a recurring motif in a number of young adult novels centered around the experiences of immigrant girls and their adjustment to life in a new country. The integration process appears to belinked to the girls’ relationships with boys from the majority culture, making romance a central element of the girls’ development of a new identity and sense of belonging in the new country. We will examine the intersections of gender and integration by focusing on the narrative voices of immigrant girls in three contemporary novels, Sarah Darer Littman’s Life, After (2010), Sarah Crossan’s The Weight of Water(2012), and Terry Farish’s The Good Braider (2012).

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturvetenskap (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- General Literary Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Migration

immigration

gender

young adult fiction

girls

Litteraturvetenskap

Literary studies

Barn- och ungdomsvetenskap

Child and Youth studies

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)