Pormoting the enjoument: the humour in the young literature

Abstract

This paper investigates the lack of humour in the current Young Literature. lt is obvious that the comical element doesn't stand out among the devices or strategies that the authors develop to capture the reader's interest. That is why this article suggests some hypotheses that contribute to describe this situation. Thus, as far as Young Literature is concerned, it is argued that authors and publishers tend to perceive the adolescent reader with uncertainty and distrust. Some cases -titles and authors- are analyzed below in which humour is not a secondary or occasional device but a substantial ingredient in the narrative pact that the writer aims to make with his readers. All in all, it is supported that humour, the search of the comicality, helps to bring up the adolescent reader better than other seemingly more educational procedures which are more conventional and in line with guidelines and socially well-accepted values.