Alrighty. So I've decided on a topic. Basically, I have to narrow a disseration-worthy topic down to about 25 pages. I could write forever on this. Eep.

I'm going to write on the effect of supernatural & fantastical elements in coming-of-age stories. To narrow the topic, I will be specifically writing on the inclusion of fairies and vampires in YA fiction that centers on teenage girls. The sources will all be fairly recent, from the last 15 years or so.

Primary sources may include::
-- Tithe by Holly Black
-- I Was A Teenage Fairy by Francesca Lia Block
-- Companions of the Night by Vivian Van Velde
-- a textual reading of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes like "Surprise/Innocence," "Graduation Day," and "Fear, Itself."
-- also The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and Dracula as older, canonical examples of books with supernatural coming-of-age elements
-- I may briefly mention Harry Potter, but considering I haven't read the books and they don't really fit into my topic, I will mention them only in passing

I want to discuss how these stories operate on both a supernatural and an "everywoman" level, and how the fantastic elements in them help to shape the heroine and usher her into adulthood and/or self-acceptance and maturation. I want to examine the metaphors these characters represent, particularly metaphors of societal pressures, individuality, and sexuality.

The critical approaches I plan to take are:
-- feminist, since I'm dealing with girls/women
-- structuralist, since many works I am looking at deal somewhat with Joseph Campbell's "A Hero's Journey" narrative structure
-- a little bit of queer theory, since I do not want to limit the discussion to heterosexual coming-of-age.

My crit sources need a bit of bulking up. I have several books of Buffy crit, including Reading The Vampire Slayer, which the lovely rozk edited. (Should I get the second printing, Roz, or is the first good enough for this topic?) However, it occured to me that I have lovely and amazing and brainy Buffyfen on my list who might have links to all sorts of neat articles I should look at. So-- if you've got something you think I might benefit from looking at, I would very much appreciate a link or recommendation. Even primary sources that you think are glaring omissions would be appreciated. If anything, a mention could help add to textual support.

Thanks, guys