Critical Religious Literacies and Opportunities for Alterity across YA Literature

Abstract

This critical content analysis draws on a dataset of contemporary young adult texts receiving awards between 2012 and 2023 to examine opportunities for religiously informed alterity for readers, which we argue can be a productive experience for building critical religious literacy in young adult readers. We argue that young adult literature can serve as models of critical religious literacies when authors, characters, and historical figures engage in conflicted meaning-making as they experience slippages between their lived experiences and their religious and secular beliefs. The study aims to develop a framework for developing religious literacy that draws specifically on identity-laden and critical theories of literacy common within the English language arts. Furthermore, this study provides literacy scholars and practitioners with a robust set of textual resources that can be employed to support critical religious literacies.