In Caroline Cooney’s young adult novel Driver’s Ed, Cooney plays with the relationship between writer, narrator and audience. As discussed in blog 2, the genre of young adult fiction opens itself to interesting opportunities for the experienced reader. While works of adult fiction play with multiple levels of complexity in both narrative and subtext, young adult novels generally rely on more simple structure and rhetorical devices. That is to say, the authorial audience for a book like Driver’s Ed is one that does not yet fully possess the skills to unpack a work of adult fiction. In a sense, Cooney’s intention with this book is not only to convey a message or moral to her audience, but to teach her young authorial audience how to think and read critically; or rather, how to become a capable reader.
The Rabinowitz piece “Truth In Fiction: A Reexamination of Audiences“, defines the actual audience as “the flesh-and-blood people who read the book” (126). Although this book may be a work of young adult fiction, its authorial audience is not the same as its actual audience. This book can be picked up and read by anyone, not just those familiar to the genre. But in reading a work of young adult fiction, the actual audience must assume the role of the authorial audience in order to “get the text” on its own terms. Cooney interpellates us to do so throughout the novel, using varied techniques to accomplish this. In many instances, Cooney uses metaphors and descriptions that speak more directly to children and teenagers than to adults. This ranges from internal bouts of manic infatuation from the main characters, to various references of peanut butter and treehouses. In doing so, Cooney hails or interpellates the actual audience to take up the role of the authorial audience. By constantly evaluating the role of the narrative audience in this book, a reader will be more readily able to reconstitute separate readerly roles for him or herself.
In submitting to this text specifically, I was forced to create a new readerly role for myself. Young adult fiction is unique in this way – everyone who is an adult has at some point been an adolescent. For this reason, assuming the role of the authorial audience is something that almost any reader is capable of, given that he or she recalls the values possessed by his or her younger self. Creating this new role constitutes as becoming the “capable reader”(146), as proposed by James Seitz. This means that the reader is successfully able to assume the role that the book asks him or her to be. But although creating this new role is vital to the understanding of this book, submitting to a work of young adult fiction is not always as easy as it sounds. Because we have had continued practice with critical reading on more challenging novels, assuming the role of a much more inexperienced reader proved to be an ongoing challenge, but a valuable one nonetheless.
Book Reader's Web 
Good use of the Rabinowitz piece. I just want to point out something else I had noticed while reading this book. After reading Seconds, I’ve gotten into the habit of looking for the readerly role that the characters are called into. I’ve done it with the children’s books I’ve been reading for my Writing Children’s Stories class, and I did it for this book as well. I couldn’t help but notice how Remy and Morgan transformed from resistant to submissive– or from submissive to resistant in another instance. I first noticed this transformation in relation to Denise Thompson. At first, they were extremely resistant to the fact that they killed her. It wasn’t until they confessed their crime of stealing the sign to their teacher and their parents that they were told– and then began to understand/become submissive to the fact that they had they had cause the death of Denise. Later, after completing the book, I noticed another transformation in relation to driving. At first, we see that most of the students (with the exception of Christine who was extremely resistant throughout) are submissive to the idea of driving and freedom. Then, after all of the drama with the sign, most, especially Remy and Morgan are terrified of driving and the responsibilities that come with it. They become very, very resistant. These are just two dynamics that I found interesting in this narrator/adressee/capable audience relationship.
LikeLike
As you mentioned in your post this book does not only teach morals, but also teaches critical reading to a younger audience. I found the point you made in your post surrounding the idea that younger audiences are not truly able to unpack complex themes to be really fascinating. In a way, texts such as this serves a stepping stone to understanding more complex texts. Even though this book is marketed towards a younger audience, as you mentioned, it could be picked up by anyone who assumed the role of the authorial audience. With this realization, I am quite glad that this book was chosen for this class. I saw it as a sort of challenge to put my self in the mindset of the actual audience while reading this book and thoroughly analyzing the text. Sure enough, there was still much to “unpack” from the text so to speak. I have to admit, it was difficult at times for me to assume the role of the authorial audience while reading this book, but the author’s use of “varied techniques” really helped me to become a capable reader. Overall, great post!
LikeLike
Your blog post was a great read Liam. I did not feel this way when reading Driver’s Ed, I felt right back in Sophomore year of high school and connected very well with the story. But how you describe yourself taking on the authorial audience was the perfect way to describe it when we are feeling resistant to something that is not our favorite genre or just not our taste. To have discipline and yearn for knowledge we have to assume these roles to put ourselves in the shoes of the author to see the grand scheme of it all. Otherwise we’ve learned nothing as writers.
LikeLike