A FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF BLACK FEMALE ADOLESCENCE, IDENTITY AND RACIAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN YA FICTION OF ANGIE THOMAS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v13.i5.2025.6909Keywords:
Young Adult Literature, Black Lives Matter, Ethnicity, Racial Consciousness, Adolescence, Feminism, Literary TheoryAbstract [English]
This paper examines the representation of Black female adolescence in the young adult (YA) fiction of Angie Thomas, focusing primarily on The Hate U Give and On the Come U Drawing on Black feminist theory and intersectionality, the study explores how Thomas constructs identity, agency, and racial consciousness through her protagonists, Starr Carter and Bri Jackson. The analysis demonstrates that Thomas’s narratives foreground the lived realities of systemic racism, gendered stereotypes, and class marginalization, while simultaneously offering frameworks of empowerment, voice, and resistance. The paper argues that Thomas’s work contributes significantly to contemporary YA literature by centering Black female subjectivity and fostering critical racial awareness among adolescent readers.
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