“trying on what It Truly Means to Be Another Person”: Young Adult Literature as a Tool for Emotional Literacy

Abstract Book of the 10th International Conference on Modern Approaches in Humanities and Social Sciences

Year: 2025

[PDF]

“trying on what It Truly Means to Be Another Person”: Young Adult Literature as a Tool for Emotional Literacy

Giulia Fusco

ABSTRACT:

Emotional literacy is increasingly recognized as an essential component of personal development and human flourishing. The concept of emotional intelligence is central to the research of psychologist Daniel Goleman, who identifies self-awareness and empathy as its core features. Empathic ability is based on awareness of one’s own emotions and is crucial in understanding others’ needs and motivations: attunement to others’ feelings promotes comprehension of thoughts and needs and encourages not only cooperative, but genuinely prosocial behavior. In this process, literature can play a pivotal role, offering young readers a safe space to explore emotions, fears and hopes through the experiences of fictional characters. Based on these premises, this study proposes an educational approach using young adult literature to enhance emotional literacy among adolescents aged 13–17. Young adult literature is a dynamic and complex field, characterized by a continuous interplay between “educational” and “elective” texts. In the literary landscape of the new millennium, novels about cancer have become significant publishing phenomena, reshaping how illness is represented: cancer is neither metaphorical nor depicted solely in its objective materiality (Sontag, 1979); rather, it serves as a vehicle for readers’ identification with characters and their desire for autonomy and life. In novels such as The Fault in Our Stars and My Sister’s Keeper this identification is particularly powerful, forming the foundation for empathic engagement and moral imagination. These stories allow young readers to access the characters’ emotional and psychological worlds, thereby expanding their emotional vocabulary. This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the two aforementioned novels and proposes an educational pathway for secondary school students, involving guided readings, discussions, and creative writing workshops aimed at combating emotional illiteracy. These novels also highlight the potential benefits of reading in adolescence for the development of emotional skills, particularly when literature aligns with young readers’ preferences.

Keywords: Adolescence, Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, Illness, Narrative