Hi!
I'm currently starting to work on my thesis for university.
For a bit of context: I'm from Germany, studying English here and I love reading. Since I'm in the teacher training program, a lot of my future will be centered around teenagers, and hence, youth culture.
This is why I decided, in order to have at least some use for my career, I want to write my thesis centered around YA literature.
My exact topic is "The depiction of women in popular American Young Adult Novels" (because the subject I chose is American literary/cultural studies).
I thought about having a comparison of said depiction over the centuries and stating one major example for every century since the 19th.
For the 19th century I will pick Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Book series are a little overwhelming, which is why I thought about choosing a John Green Novel (Looking for Alaska?) for the 21th century.
My problem is, that I am very unsure about the 20th century.
For a little bit of help, I personally define "YA literature" as targeted at teenagers aged ~13-19. I prefer the protagonists being around the same age, because it would fit the other two novels. Preferably no fantasy since I feel like that would also differ too much from the other books.
Oh, also it's very important that at least one women is featured. So no "Lord of the flies" or something.
Thank you for your help!
by justanotherisi