Zum Thema Cyber-Mobbing in der zeitgenössischen deutschen Jugendliteratur

Abstract

Cyberviolence (or cyber-harassment, cyber-bullying) is a type of mental violence executed with the use of the Internet, online tools and services such as e-mail or social media. Cyber-bullying can involve insults, words of abuse, humiliating the victim or sending and posting compromising photographs, films and false information on the Internet. Virtual violence is more acute than mobbing in real space and time since its scope is literally unlimited and the perpetrator remains anonymous. The increasing problem of cyberviolence is more and more often addressed in literature, especially literature for young adults. The aim of the paper is to identify and investigate, on the basis of an analysis of selected young-adult novels, the main aspects of this phenomenon, i. e. motives for and the effects of cyber-bullying, psychological characteristics of the victims and perpetrators as well as the impact of virtual reality on literary fiction and the structure of literary works.

Keywords

• cyber-bullying
• the Internet
• social media
• contemporary young-adult literature