ABSTRACT
The theme of trauma sits uneasily next to the idea of childhood. Scholars like Epstein have warned that trauma in young adult fiction might pose a psychological barrier to the processes of growth and development by inflicting stress that the young readers might not be equipped to handle. This chapter focuses on a prominent narrative trajectory of young adult fiction - the heroic quest - and explores its ability to narrate trauma. Jane Yolen's Holocaust novel, Briar Rose follows the pattern of the heroic quest to narrate the story of intergenerational trauma experienced by the victims of Holocaust and their second and third generation listeners. The process of growth is framed into a quest narrative where the historical trauma merges with family history. Such journeys into past, the chapter contends, not only open a way to visit the traumas of history, but also complicate the humanist resolutions of conventional coming-of-age narratives.
