UNDERSTANDING HOMOSEXUAL IDENTITIES IN MODERN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE: AN ANALYSIS OF RAINBOW BOYS, OPENLY STRAIGHT, AND BOY MEETS BOY

Abstract

Alex Sanchez, Bill Koningsberg, and David Levithan hold a large market share of the young adult (YA) literary genre that feature homosexual young men. These authors have written characters that use broad terms like masculine and gay to discuss their sexuality. When these authors use these terms, they are using them in a context that changes based on the time and culture in which they were written. When the characters use these terms to describe themselves, it becomes difficult to understand how they are describing their sexuality. This project explores how these characters use these terms to describe themselves and argues that setting can have a powerful impact on how identity formation takes place in homosexual characters.