The Cultural Stakes of Intimacy in the Contemporary Young Adult Romance

In his classic survey of young adult (YA) literature, Michael Cart traces the infiltration of the romance genre into the YA market in the 1980s. He accounts for this trend by citing an interview with prolific author Jane Yolen for Seventeen magazine in 1983, where she argues that the rising popularity of the romance is “a teenager’s way of saying ’enough.’ Teenagers have seen their adolescence taken away by graphic television shows and movies and books. The return to romance is a way to return to the mystery and the beauty of love, even if only on a superficial level” (in Cart 43).1 Many critics agree that the romance novel is escapist, with opinions on the genre’s merits ranging from praiseworthy to pejorative. When Louise Rennison’s humorous romance novel Angus, Thongs and Full Fron­ tal Snogging became an honor book for the Printz Award, critics were surprised