“What’s the Point of Having a Voice If You’re Gonna Be Silent?”

Youth Activism in Young Adult Literature

Authors

  • Sean P. Connors University of Arkansas
  • Roberta Seelinger Trites Illinois State University

Abstract

A growing number of people are turning to young adult literature as a road map to address social injustice through activism, which suggests that literary texts are neither apolitical nor static works of art exploring ‘timeless’ themes. This article examines how two recent young adult protest novels, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (2017) and The Marrow Thieves by Claire Dimaline (2017), resist the emphasis that neoliberalism—an economic philosophy that advocates for free markets and deregulation—places on extreme individualism and competition. In doing so, these books model collective action as a remedy for neoliberal policies that perpetuate systemic oppression.

Author Biographies

  • Sean P. Connors, University of Arkansas

    Sean P. Connors is an associate professor of English education at the University of Arkansas, where he teaches courses on young adult literature. He is the editor of The Politics of Panem (2014) and co-editor of Teaching Girls on Fire: Essays on Dystopian Young Adult Literature in the Classroom (2020).

  • Roberta Seelinger Trites, Illinois State University

    Roberta Seelinger Trites holds the rank of Distinguished Professor at Illinois State University, where she has taught children’s and adolescent literature since 1991. She is the author of Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature (2000), and her most recent book is Twenty-First-Century Feminisms in Adolescent Literature (2018).

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Published

2026-04-18

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 1 (2021): Literature and Activism

Section

Article

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Connors, S. P., & Trites, R. S. (2026). “What’s the Point of Having a Voice If You’re Gonna Be Silent?”: Youth Activism in Young Adult Literature. FRAME, Journal of Literary Studies, 34(1), 53-70. https://platform.openjournals.nl/FRAME/article/view/27205