Because my paper is written about dark themes in drama, I started researching some articles on the library database to find some people who agreed or disagreed with me. I couldn’t mind many at all! Just one: “Theatre For Young Audiences: More Adult Than Ever” by Simi Horwitz. She talks about how children’s theatre has become, in recent years, more adult. The topics might be more complex, or challenge their ways of thinking. She also talks about how the staging and the performing has moved away from Barney or Disney Channel - like more time is put into it. This only helped me a little bit.
BUT in my YA Literature class, for Friday we read Unwind: a novel about a world (post civil war #2) where people could “unwind” their children between the ages of 13-18. It was the solution to abortion. So whether parents just didn’t want their kids anymore, or whether they are uber-religious and they “tithe” their tenth child (one tenth of everything, right) or maybe they are wards of the state and they don’t prove to be successful enough - these children are sent off to a harvest camp to be unwound. All of their body parts, every single piece of them, have to be used to help someone else. The world has no shortage of hearts, lungs, kidneys... because they come from the children that were unwound.
BUT in my YA Literature class, for Friday we read Unwind: a novel about a world (post civil war #2) where people could “unwind” their children between the ages of 13-18. It was the solution to abortion. So whether parents just didn’t want their kids anymore, or whether they are uber-religious and they “tithe” their tenth child (one tenth of everything, right) or maybe they are wards of the state and they don’t prove to be successful enough - these children are sent off to a harvest camp to be unwound. All of their body parts, every single piece of them, have to be used to help someone else. The world has no shortage of hearts, lungs, kidneys... because they come from the children that were unwound.
Sounds kind of dark, right? It was. But it was also amazing. We also read for class three articles talking about dark or bleak themes in literature. I felt that these could really apply to my topic and to the stage as well. There were some for these things and some against. I think it was helpful to get both perspectives! One quote that I thought was particularly great:
“A book that details both the highs and (importantly) the lows of such risky behavior might be an invaluable tool for keeping students on the right path and satisfying adolescent curiosity.” from Living through Lit: Why Dark Young Adults Shouldn’t Be Banned (McDaniel).
No comments:
Post a Comment