AustLit

In this article, de Villiers looks at textual representations of transgression within the context of contemporary adolescent fiction in two Australian novels, Killing Aurora and Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude Get a Life. De Villiers points out that in the majority of adolescent fiction, 'transgression is still primarily used to reinscribe charatcers within the dominant ideological framework' of Westernized cultures, however, literary acts of transgression can be used to undermine and subvert dominant ideologies and their 'asscociated discursive practices' (5). The ensuing comparative reading concludes that Killing Aurora 'makes a far more radical use of transgression which questions the dominant social and cultural paradigms of identity formation' as opposed to Queen Kat, Carmel and St. Jude..., which is 'conservative and traditional' in its underlying enforcement of the 'dominant patriarchal framework which aligns women with the sterotypically 'feminine' and 'natural' role of caring and nurturing for children' (6,10).