engleski

Rite of Passage in YA Dystopian Novels: The Hunger Games & The Giver

This thesis aims to define and establish the use and effects of the rite of passage into adulthood in dystopian literature for children and young adults. In accordance with the recent rise in popularity of dystopian fiction in both literature and film, the focus is on one of the first children’s novels of the genre, The Giver by Lois Lowry, on its three sequels, and on one of the most prominent trilogies in recent years, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The typical characteristics of dystopian novels have been established, and a comparative analysis of the novels in focus has been performed to reveal if and how they display differences in that respect. In the next step the stages of the rites of passage into adulthood have been explored and applied in the analysis of the novels under examination to establish their influence on the protagonists and their actions. It has been established that the protagonists move from one stage to the other and that in each stage they face the negative aspects of their dystopian environment and of the literary world they belong to. The consequences of their respective fictional societies become obvious in the final stage of the rites of passage into adulthood. It can be concluded that the protagonists abandon their rite of passage either to change their society and current order of social relationships or to eradicate it in attempt to replace it with a more tolerant society founded on awareness and free choice.

: children’s literature ; young adult literature ; rite of passage ; dystopian fiction

Diplomski rad nastao je tijekom boravka diplomantice na Erasmus programu u Ljubljani. Sumentorica, odnosno neposredna voditeljica u izradi diplomskoga rada bila je prof. dr. sc. M.M.Blažić s Pedagoškoga fakulteta u Ljubljani.