Open AccessRealistic teenage fiction with a sexrelated theme: Readers’ responses to <i>Slinger-slinger</i> by Francois Bloemhof
Author(s) -
M.N. Wiggill,
GF de J De Wet
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
literator
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2219-8237
pISSN - 0258-2279
DOI - 10.4102/lit.v25i3.271
Subject(s) - theme (computing) , reading (process) , psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology , computer science , linguistics , philosophy , operating system
Francois Bloemhof submitted his novel for teenagers, “Slinger-slinger” for the Sanlam competition for youth fiction in 1996. Eventually this prizewinner in the beginners’ category was published in 1997. The main theme of “Slinger-slinger” is the sexual awakening and identity of teenagers. A study was undertaken to obtain the opinions of teenage readers about the success of “Slinger-slinger” as a whole, as well as to gauge the success of integrating sexual aspects in this novel. The study also served to obtain information about the reading needs of teenage readers with regard to realistic teenage fiction and teenage fiction with a sex-related theme. The findings of the study underlying this article indicated that the participating teenage readers regarded “Slinger-slinger” as successful and interesting, and that they would like to read more realistic Afrikaans teenage fiction such as “Slinger-slinger”