Sick-lit — a new and debatable phenomenon in young adult (YA) literature.
Literature has always been an important part of our lives and a vital element in education of young people. Various genres have been interchangeably popular among young readers with different intensity. Somewhere in this category one may find young adults, who are the target demographic of this article.
The time between teen age and adulthood is quite vulnerable as it is then that our beliefs, opinions and views are being shaped. Therefore, the literature young adults read should serve as an educational treat that also offers fun and memorable protagonists with whom they may identify. Moreover, such books can come in handy for parents or teachers while discussing important matters such as health, sex, teen pregnancy, suicide, illness or death.
Nowadays, we may observe some changing trends in fiction for young readers. The first, and rather remarkable one, has been Harry Potter with its magical aura. The second considerable trend has been Twilight and other vampire-themed novels. Then, there came sick-lit and such themes as illness and death.
Looking for the possible origin of the term sick-lit, we may look into medical anthropology. Rachel Hall-Clifford, who is “Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Public Health at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia,” wrote a paper entitled “Autopathographies: How ‘sick-lit.’ shapes knowledge of the illness experience” based on her post-doctoral research concerning illness narratives (Hall-Clifford 355). In the paper, Hall-Clifford says that some of the earliest examples of autopathographies, as a genre, date back to 1950s (356). She also explains that autopathographies are “detailed accounts of illness experiences, usually written retrospectively” (355). They include vital information about diagnosis and treatment as well as show the effect the illness has on the patient’s life and how he or she perceives health care institutions (355). One of the most well-known and best-seller autopathographies is Prozac Nation (1994) by Elizabeth Wurtzel. Seven years after its publication, Erik Skjoldbjærg made its film adaptation, which was also quite successful. As Hall-Clifford equitably points out, autopathographies appeal to many readers because “they are familiar in their dramatic narrative format, with the addition that they chart the course of real people and real experiences” (365). Even though modern sick-lit novels are not as authentic as the aforementioned autopathographies, their authors try to make them look as if they were true as it enables a better understanding of and sympathy with the struggling protagonists.
“The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children: It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…” is an article that caused a great stir among both children’s books experts and book critics. It was written for The Daily Mail in January 3rd 2013 by Tanith Carey. In the article, Carey shares her point of view on “the next big thing in the lucrative world of young adult fiction” as the vampire-oriented era needs a solid heir. The author brings out attention to this new genre by enumerating and briefly describing ten YA novels. Books such as The Fault in Our Stars (2012) by John Green, Never Eighteen (2012) by Megan Bostic and Before I Die (2007) by Jenny Downham depict stories where the protagonists are cancer and leukaemia-stricken. Tanith Carey expresses her disgust caused by “using children with months to live to build dramatic tension.” Other books she refers to are Thirteen Reasons Why (2007) by Debra Wiseman and Jay Asher, By The Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead (2010) by Julie Ann Peters, The Lovely Bones (2002) by Alice Sebold and Red Tears (2007) by Joanna Kenrick, all of which contain stories about self-harm, murder and death. In her article, Carey mentions Amanda Craig, a children’s book expert, who strongly remarks that “it is a cavalier attitude towards this in the publishing industry”, for “when you write for children, you have a moral and social responsibility.” Carey brings up another very disturbing phenomenon, namely, the four aforementioned books serving as a trigger pushing teenagers towards self-harm. Similar thing happens with the novel by Lurlene McDaniel entitled So Much to Live For (2003). It is a story about an eye cancer-stricken girl struggling with her doctor’s recommendation not to put make-up on in order to avoid developing an infection. The story exemplifies still another aspect of the supposedly negative influence of the sick-lit books — the stress related with make-up, without which you will most definitely not be fancied by the opposite sex. In the aforementioned article, Carey also refers to child psychologist Emma Ciron, who urges parents to be “vigilant if a child is reading a lot of these books.” However, Carey argues that such books actually help young readers in difficult situations as they do not feel alone. She bases her argument on comments made by real young readers.
Sick-lit is a contentious and yet quite popular matter. Michelle Pauli, who writes for The Guardian, wrote an article entitled “’Sick-lit’? Evidently young adult fiction is too complex for the Daily Mail.” Referring to Carey’s text, Pauli writes: “Children and teens — well, all of us really — read to explore and experience other lives and thoughts and situations in a safe way, not purely for escapism and adventures and fantasy (although this is a valuable and cherished tradition in children’s fiction, too).” It is important not to hide real-life problems from young people, for they will find out about them at some point whether we want it or not. Books labelled as sick-lit’ can serve as a starting point for a conversation with parents or other adults and therefore prevent young people from being surprised or shocked by some of the matters that are “out there”. In the article, Pauli thus defends YA writers:
Writers for children and teens tend to be some of the most thoughtful people I’ve met, at least in terms of the impact of their work on their audience. They think long and carefully about the effect writing about difficult, even taboo, topics might have on young readers who are dealing with those things directly, or might be influenced by what they read. Writers and publishers know they have a responsibility when publishing for children and teens. They also adhere to codes of suitability around the three Ss — swearing, shagging and slaughter — to a much greater extent than writer in other forms of media regularly consumed by teens. They have to.
In The Guardian’s “Children’s Books” section, Sian Cain also shares her point of view on the sick-lit phenomenon in her article “YA books on death: is young adult fiction becoming too dark?” She quotes Jay Asher, a young adult author, whose words remind the reader that death is not an inappropriate feature of YA novels: “When death is presented in teen novels, it’s often as a way to discuss issues and questions many people have at that age.” Then, she expresses her admiration for the creativity concerning the matter of death presented in YA books: “The sheer myriad of creative ways that death is dealt with in YA books is frankly brilliant: romantic fumblings with undead spooks, monsters that physically embody our fears of morality, teenagers living through their deaths again and again.” When YA novels represent death as a character, they are either “both comforting and macabre in the way they demystify dying by personifying Death” (as in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief) or “death is demystified by being inevitable in the plot” (as in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones). When hearing about death in their children’s books, parents have a terrifying image in front of their eyes. It is all out of the need to protect their children from such horrendous things. However, Cain brings our attention to the fact that parents need to be reminded that “reading about death does not make you want to die; likewise, reading about suicide does not condone suicide.” As Cain continues, “oversimplifying people,” which, according to her, happens when we “put an age on the ability to differentiate between fiction and reality or being better at dealing with emotions.” At the end of her article, Cain points out an important fact about the individuality of each reader. She explains that all the fears and problems each of us has are solely individual and we should not pigeonhole all young adults and assume that they all are unable able to acquire or absorb the idea of death.
Intending to find a (possibly) life-changing book, young people may rely on the latest internet trend that can be of great use while searching for items according to their category or a keyword. A hashtag (#) helps to store tens and hundreds of categorized articles, posts, comments and other things of social, cultural or academic nature. The New Yorker has even written an article about that ‘hashtaggery’. A YA writer mentioned by Cain, Maureen Johnson, who, in order to keep a record of all the books that had a significant impact on young people’s lives or helped them to deal with tough issues, created the hashtag #YAsaves used on both Twitter and Instagram. The idea received over 15,000 answers within hours. #YAsaves still remains in use and serves as an archive of significant YA books described by the young readership as ‘life-changing,’ ‘comforting’ or even ‘healing’ according to the tweets on twitter.com under the search of ‘#YAsaves.’ Through using the aforementioned hashtag, young readers write to their favourite authors, expressing their gratitude while explaining how the books ‘saved’ them. As nowadays the hashtag idea is ubiquitous, anyone who is looking for help in the form of a book may easily find it on the internet with just a few clicks. An additional quite popular hashtag (this time on Instagram) is #YAlit. It has now over 750k posts. Young readers share their favourite novels and exchange their opinions and experiences.
What about your opinion? Do you think that sick-lit is important? Or maybe too ‘dark’ for young people to comprehend? Have you had any experiences with sick-lit? Do not hesitate to comment and share :) Thanks for reading.
Works Cited:
Cain, Sian. “YA books on death: is young adult fiction becoming too dark?” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies, 11 May 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2015.
Carey, Tanith. “The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children: It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…” The Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers Ltd, 3 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Jan. 2015.
Hall-Clifford, Rachel. “Autopathographies: How ‚sick-lit.‘ Shapes Knowledge of the Illness Experience” Institute of Social & Cultural Anthropology University of Oxford. Oxford University, n.d. PDF file. 5 Mar. 2015.
Pauli, Michelle. “’Sick-lit’? Evidently young adult fiction is too complex for the Daily Mail” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies, 4 Jan. 2013. Web. 10 Jan. 2015.
