Research Proposal

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My main "beautiful" question is: How does young adult literature misrepresent and romanticize mental illness?
My smaller questions would be:
Is it having a noticeable impact (stats) on the children reading it?
How can we teach young adult literature that deals with mental illness in a safe way?
What books provide an accurate representation of mental illness?
What specific characters are written in a way that makes sad=cool or honorable (thirteen reasons why)?
Why are love stories in young adult literature so often have characters that deal with mental illness? Can this be making mental illness an attractive quality?

I plan on covering this topic of mental illness romanticization because it is a forefront theme in most young adult novels, specifically love stories. I love the representation of mental illness and us being a society more educated about the situation. We can help more people the more we talk about and understand mental illness. However, it is a concern of mine that the portrayal of mental illness in these books can be almost sensationalized at times. The mental illness in young adult novels that include a love story often are what sets a character apart and makes them more "deep". I think the glamorization of these depressed love stories can cause mental illness to become an attractive and desired trait among young people. I plan on using these following books but I might find more: Aristotle and Dante, Thirteen Reasons Why, and A Tale For A Time Being. I plan on mostly using academic articles with research as my resources. However, I will be searching for news articles on real world events relating to my topic. I think the biggest problem with my research is that I might not find statistics which I would really like to include in my paper. I like numbers and I think they help some visualize. I will still be searching for an article with statistics but that might be difficult.
My argument is that the romanticization of mental illness in young adult novels can have detremental effects on young adults. However, there is a responsible way to teach, talk,read, write, and learn about mental illness without glamorizing it.

Comments

  1. Logan FowlerNovember 11, 2019 at 10:24 AM

    I think this is a great topic to cover! I hadn't realized how mental illness has been romanticized in YA lit. I think that there is a fine line between trying to educate adolescents and simply normalizing behaviors that they should avoid or seek help for. I think I read somewhere or heard somewhere that after the increase in teen suicide post the release of 13 Reasons Why on Netflix, the scene where the main character kills herself has been edited out. Do you think that it is that one particular scene that normalized suicide in the eyes of teens or the show in general?

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  2. Tiara A WintonNovember 11, 2019 at 7:09 PM

    I am very eager to read your paper and hear about your research process. On social media mental illness is being normalized and I'm not sure if it is because adolescents think its "cool" to claim these illness or because they actually do experience mental illness symptoms. Actually providing information in YA literature might help some teens distinguish the true meaning of claiming a mental illness.

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