La Trobe

Mapping the undiscovered country: a brief introduction to contemporary afterlife fiction for young adults

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journal contribution
posted on 2025-06-30, 06:00 authored by Sophie Masson
In the last fifteen years, fiction set in or about the afterlife has become a popular and critically acclaimed sub-genre within contemporary speculative fiction for young adults especially, but not only, in English-language publishing. These narratives, where the main characters die at the beginning of the story and find themselves in an alien world, the world beyond death, have developed into a fertile ground for imaginative and intellectual challenge and discovery, as a means both to depict the ultimate culture shock and a challenging exploration of otherness and alienation.

History

Journal

The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature

ISSN

1551-5680

Volume

20

Issue

1

Publisher

La Trobe University

Section Title

Jabberwocky

Author Biography

Born in Jakarta, Indonesia, of French parents, Sophie Masson spent much of her childhood moving back and forth between Australia and France, growing up between worlds, and between languages, an experience which has formed a lot of her work. A bilingual French and English speaker, she has a BA and M.Litt in French and English Literature from the University of New England in northern NSW, and is currently undertaking Ph.D. study in Creative Practice at the same university. Sophie has had more than 60 books published in Australia and internationally, mostly for young adults and children, but also for adults, including the internationally-selling Forest of Dreams, an adult fantasy trilogy based on the life and work of the medieval French writer Marie de France. Much of her fiction for children and young adults has also been in the fantasy genre, but she has also written ghost stories, mysteries, thrillers, family stories, picture books and a graphic novel. Her non-fiction book on con...

Date Created

2017-11-08

Rights Statement

Essays and articles published in The Looking Glass may be reproduced for non-profit use by any educational or public institution; letters to the editor and on-site comments made by our readers may not be used without the expressed permission of that individual. Any commercial use of this journal, in whole or in part, by any means, is prohibited. Authors of accepted articles assign to The Looking Glass the right to publish and distribute their text electronically and to archive and make it permanently available electronically. They retain the copyright and, 90 days after initial publication, may republish it in any form they wish as long as The Looking Glass is acknowledged as the original source.

Data source

OJS data migration 2025: https://ojs.latrobe.edu.au/ojs/index.php/tlg/article/view/868

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