Parapseudo is a term I came up with to describe a genre that has several other names:
Young Adult/Teen Supernatural Romance
Young Adult/Teen Paranormal Romance
Young Adult/Teen Fantasy
I was tired of typing "YASR" or "TPR" or whatever else I referred to them as. I wanted to devise a specific term that would sum up the genre and how I felt about it (early on).
It's actually a pretty snarky term. The prefix para = beside, beyond. The prefix pseudo = false, imitation. I initially thought these works were not "true" literature. They were paraliterary, parafiction. Obviously, they were imitations--not really writing. Pseudostories, frought with pseudocharacters tumbling through pseudoplots.
I know. Sounds really bitchy. In my mind, the term has lost all of its original edge. It's nothing more than a kitschy word now, something that I can claim as my own. In the end, it's all about me--or the parapseudoME that I portray on this blog--and my perceived dominance over language. (Not much different than many of the stuffy jerks I force on my students!)
