A case study of American young adult response to international literature

Educators often use the metaphor of the bridge to describe how international literature links readers to another country or culture. This study tests that metaphor by examining the ways six 8th-grade American students read international literature. Resting on reader response theory, this study posed two questions: How do 8th-grade American readers experience or make sense of international literature? and How do eighth-grade American readers' responses change over time, from the beginning to the end of a book or from the beginning to the end of this study? This dissertation explores these questions, ideas nested in the broader context of multiculturalism and literacy studies.;Several fields and disciplines came together to inform the project: international literature for children and young adults; reader response theory and sociocultural studies that shed light on how adolescents respond to literature from other countries; and international and comparative education, particularly as it pertains to literature.;Members from International Board of Books for Young People (IBBY) and the International Reading Association (IRA) were asked to recommend appropriate texts. The students chose from among these recommended reading materials throughout the project. Data were gathered through reading autobiographies, journals, literature circles, and student and teacher interviews. The research employed a qualitative case study design.;Data analysis revealed that students made meaning personally and passionately, experiencing the books visually and through their senses. They identified with characters and entered imaginatively into the settings of the books. Changes in students' understanding included greater metacognitive awareness and, as demonstrated through their journal entries and interviews, enlarged schema for understanding the time and the countries in which they were set. Students entered into lives very different from their own and were amazed at the similarities human beings share throughout the world. As students reflected on their reading of several texts from various countries, they affirmed the aptness of the bridge metaphor. Their responses suggest, however, that the bridge metaphor is more complex than it first appears and each reader's bridge was a unique structure that began wherever her feet were.