Toward a Theory of Adolescence: Queer Disruptions in Representations of Adolescent Reading

Using queer and psychoanalytic schemas, this essay develops a theory of adolescence to shed light on the ways in which categories of age shape our experiences of ourselves and others. It draws from social discourse surrounding adolescent reading and from fictional scenes of reading in nineteenth-century novels, twentieth-century classics, and contemporary young adult fiction in order to unravel the cultural logic of adolescence as it has been deployed throughout the twentieth century.