Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction

The heroic romance is one of the West''s most enduring narratives, found everywhere, from religion and myth to blockbuster films and young adult literature. Within this story, adolescent girls are not, and cannot be, the heroes. They are, at best, the hero''s bride, a prize he wins for slaying monsters. Crucially, although the girl''s exclusion from heroic selfhood affects all girls, it does not d...