미국에서의 청소년 문학 교육

Teaching Young Adult Literature in the U.S.

&nbsp;&nbsp;Recently many universities in the U.S. have established courses related to young adult literature in their graduate and undergraduate programs for both teachers and future teachers. They successfully administer the programs in close conjunction within the fields of education, making social and educational uses of literature effective to the fullest extent.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;This paper examines America&quot;s previous experiences on teaching young adult literature with a view of making good use of these experiences in our Korean educational environment. After a brief survey of the rise and development of American young adult literature, this paper will make a detailed inquiry into the state of teaching young adult literature in the U.S., referring to student/reader-centered teaching methods based in the fields of education and representative course descriptions offered by varied universities.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Finally, implications from teaching young adult literature in the U.S. will be considered in our own educational environment. If introduced in the Korean secondary school, young adult literature could encourage a student to live a meaningful life as an adolescent securely growing into adulthood. For the English majors in Korean colleges, on the other hand, American young adult literature would provide the foremost textbooks for them to learn the language and literature, though indirectly, making them well-exposed to multi-cultural societies. Furthermore, discussions on teaching young adult literature will actively enhance and promote the literary values, which have been often neglected in the ideological conflicts, led by literary theorists, since the 1980s.