Using modernist techniques to promote deep reading in Y.A. fiction

This article applies the lens of modernism to a reading of contemporary young adult fiction. According to scholars like McHale, the primary concern of modernist writing is epistemological uncertainty. In using modernist techniques that promote this uncertainty it is argued that writers of young adult fiction can foster deep reading skills. The literary strategies of two contemporary Australian young adult texts – Sue Saliba's Something in the World Called Love (Penguin Books Australia, 2008) and Margo Lanagan's Touching Earth Lightly (Allen and Unwin, 1996) – are analysed to explore how these can provoke complex acts of interpretation.