250362 Rebellion in young adult dystopia: Divergent, The Hunger Games, and The Selection series (S) (SoSe 2016)

According to book sales, dystopian novels that target young people make up a large amount of commercial successful titles in the past couple of years. To date The Hunger Games series has sold more than 65 million copies in the United States of America and other dystopian series like the Divergent trilogy (Roth), or The Selection series (Cass) have sold multiple million copies worldwide, too. Publishers and authors design and target this genre to young readers and according to recent surveys in Germany, a great fraction of today's young readers are fond of dystopian series. We want to analyse ideologies, convictions, and perspectives in popular dystopian novels in order to trace comprehensive commonalities.
In order to make it possible to conduct a full scale research project, we need to focus on a specific aspect that is common and present in all dystopian series. Regarding the recent events and trends in European and global surveillance and security politics, I would find it revealing to analyse protest and rebellion against governments. In either the Divergent series, The Hunger Games series, and The Selection series the protagonists and people who are close to them get involved with rebellion for different reasons. We will analyse their different motivation on entering a rebellion, their different status in rebel organisations, and their evolution of convictions – from the challenge of autocratic states to the aftermath of coups d'état.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

It is recommended – but not mandatory – to have passed an introduction to qualitative research methods upfront. All texts, media, and the sessions in this course are in English.

Literaturangaben

Cass, K. (2012). The Selection. New York, NY, United States of America: HarperTeen.
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing Grounded Theory (2nd edition). Los Angeles, CA, United States of America: Sage Publications Inc.
Charmaz, K. & Clarke, A. (2014). Grounded Theory and Situational Analysis (Vols. 1-4). London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications Inc.
Clarke, A. E. (2005). Situational Analysis. Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn. London, United Kingdom: Sage Publications Inc.
Collins, S. (2008). The Hunger Games. London, United Kingdom: Scholastic Children's Books.
Roth, V. (2011). Divergent. London, United Kingdom: HarperCollins Children's Books.