Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Metamorphosis in Two Novels by Melvin Burgess: Denying and Disguising ‘Deviant’ Desire

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Children's Literature in Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Melvin Burgess has gained a reputation as an enfant terrible, whose writing tackles topics and presents attitudes which are controversial in literature for adolescents. Kimberley Reynolds cites him as an author whose work demonstrates that “writing about sex, sexuality and relationships between the sexes [is] one of the most radically changed areas in contemporary children’s literature.” Reynolds argues that novels depicting teenage sexuality no longer focus on socialising teenagers into adult-approved behaviours. Yet changes in literature are never fully “radical”; they always build on established traditions. This article examines the ways in which Burgess uses the motif of animal transformation in Tiger Tiger and Lady: My Life as a Bitch to maintain the prevailing view of adolescent carnality as a deviant variation of “proper,” adult sexuality, whilst celebrating early sexual experiences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Blume, Judy. (1975/1976). Forever. New York: Simon and Schuster.

  • Brooks, Libby. (2001, 13 August). The Truth about Kids. The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2010 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2001/aug/13/booksforchildrenandteenagers.libbybrooks.

  • Burgess, Melvin. (1996a). Junk. London: Andersen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Melvin. (1996b). Tiger Tiger. London: Andersen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Melvin. (2001). Lady: My Life as a Bitch. London: Andersen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Melvin. (2003a). Doing It. London: Andersen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Melvin. (2003b, 22 March). Three Cheers for Desire, Lust and Irresponsibility. The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2009 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/mar/22/featuresreviews.guardianreview23.

  • Burgess, Melvin. (2004). Sympathy for the Devil. Children’s Literature in Education, 35(4), 289–300.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Melvin. (2009). Nicholas Dane. London: Andersen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fine, Anne. (2003, 29 March). Filth, Which Ever Way you Look at it. The Guardian. Retrieved 10 October 2009 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2003/mar/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview24.

  • Jenkins, Emily. (2002). Melvin Burgess: The British Invasion. Publisher’s Weekly, 249(26), 28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lassén-Seger, Maria. (2003). Vem vill bli vuxen? Metamorfosmotivet I barn och ungdomslitteraturen [Who Wants to be a Grown Up? The Motif of Metamorphosis in Children’s and Youth Literature.] Nedslag I bornelitteraturforskning (pp. 135–160). Frederiksberg: Roskilde Universitetsforlag.

  • Lassén-Seger, Maria. (2006). Adventures into Otherness. Turku: Åbo Akademi University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natov, Roni. (2003). The Poetics of Childhood. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nikolajeva, Maria. (2010). Power, Voice and Subjectivity in Literature for Young Readers. New York & Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowak, Ronald M. (1999). Walker’s Mammals of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, Kimberley. (2007). Radical Children’s Literature: Future Visions and Aesthetic Transformations in Juvenile Fiction. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudd, David. (1999). A Young Person’s Guide to the Fictions of Junk. Children’s Literature in Education, 30(2), 119–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trites, Roberta Seelinger. (2000). Disturbing the Universe: Power and Repression in Adolescent Literature. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tucker, Nicholas. (2001, 27 August). That’s Why the Lady Loves Being a Tramp. Review of Melvin Burgess’s Lady: My Life as a Bitch. The Independent. Retrieved 10 October 2009 from http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/reviews/article213147.ece.

  • Warner, Marina. (1994). Six Myths of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts and More. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of English, Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS), The University of Turku, Henrikinkatu 2, Turun yliopisto, 20014, Turku, Finland

    Lydia Kokkola

Authors
  1. Lydia Kokkola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lydia Kokkola.

Additional information

Lydia Kokkola is Adjunct Professor at both the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University, the Finnish and Swedish language universities located in Turku, south-west Finland. She is currently on research leave from her departments whilst she is a Collegium Researcher at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS). She is working on a project, Silence and Sexuality: Reticent Responses to Adolescent Sexuality, and supervising seven doctoral students.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kokkola, L. Metamorphosis in Two Novels by Melvin Burgess: Denying and Disguising ‘Deviant’ Desire. Child Lit Educ 42, 56–69 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9121-0

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9121-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation