Coming of Age: The Narrative of Adolescence in David Almond's Kit's Wilderness and Nick Lake's In Darkness

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Blaylock, B. (2015). Coming of Age: The Narrative of Adolescence in David Almond's Kit's Wilderness and Nick Lake's In Darkness. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

The influence of ancient cultural narratives on contemporary reality, and the construction of literature reflecting the tradition of the past while representing modern cultural realities, remains a common feature of literary expression. However, an author’s ability to transform the shape of their narrative construction and address the trauma of coming of age through the unique reappropriation of these narratives proves a much more difficult task. Both the young adult novels of David Almond and Nick Lake, Kit’s Wilderness and In Darkness, manage to accomplish this feat while presenting compelling accounts of their adolescent male protagonists’ struggle to overcome destructive pasts and embrace the possibility of a better future.Almond and Lake synthesize aspects of this tradition to construct narratives both figuratively and literally embodying the duality of the coming of age experience. Just as adolescence positions Kit and Shorty in the complicated chasm between childhood and adulthood, dividing their understanding of self and society, the narrative structure of Almond and Lake’s texts divides into past and present representations of its protagonists’ reality. The purpose of this thesis will be to analyze the ways in which both these novels narratively construct a text marked by the same duality as the adolescent experience while simultaneously actuating a ritualized encounter ultimately enabling its transcendence.

Details
Author

Blaylock, Brook

Title

Coming of Age: The Narrative of Adolescence in David Almond's Kit's Wilderness and Nick Lake's In Darkness

Physical Description

1 online resource (105 pages) : PDF

Date

2015

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

The influence of ancient cultural narratives on contemporary reality, and the construction of literature reflecting the tradition of the past while representing modern cultural realities, remains a common feature of literary expression. However, an author’s ability to transform the shape of their narrative construction and address the trauma of coming of age through the unique reappropriation of these narratives proves a much more difficult task. Both the young adult novels of David Almond and Nick Lake, Kit’s Wilderness and In Darkness, manage to accomplish this feat while presenting compelling accounts of their adolescent male protagonists’ struggle to overcome destructive pasts and embrace the possibility of a better future.Almond and Lake synthesize aspects of this tradition to construct narratives both figuratively and literally embodying the duality of the coming of age experience. Just as adolescence positions Kit and Shorty in the complicated chasm between childhood and adulthood, dividing their understanding of self and society, the narrative structure of Almond and Lake’s texts divides into past and present representations of its protagonists’ reality. The purpose of this thesis will be to analyze the ways in which both these novels narratively construct a text marked by the same duality as the adolescent experience while simultaneously actuating a ritualized encounter ultimately enabling its transcendence.

Genre

masters theses

Subjects--Topics

English literature

Degree

M.A.

Keywords

Adolescence
Coming of Age
In Darkness
Kit's Wilderness
Narrative
Printz Award

Subject Area

English

Advisor(s)

West, Mark

Committee Members

Basu, Balaka
Connolly, Paula

Degree Note

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2015.

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Rights Holder Information

Copyright is held by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Identifier

Blaylock_uncc_0694N_11005

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:622