School – house – neighborhood. Valuation of space in literature Young Adults

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show how to present, describe and value space in Polish literature Young Adults. The tension between the social space and the subject’s experience triggers the process of cognition and self-knowledge that are crucial for the issue of YA literature, usually addressing the subject of adolescence and maturation. The ritual and symbolic space (school - home - the closest neighbourhood) shaped by collective cultural images, for the protagonist becomes both the space of rejection, humiliation and aggression, as well as the safe and meeting space. The article is an attempt to answer the following questions: How does the YA literature create imagined places and areas? How does experiencing and experiencing space (or are) affect (or can affect) the self-consciousness of the subject – the literary hero? How can the act of reading shape the world of the young reader’s values? How do the places and spaces created in the latest YA literature place themselves against selected traditional approach to the subject? The research material will be selected Polish novels from the current YA current literature written after 2004. The article provides an outline of the existential and performative model of reading imaginary space.