Faceless? – Über Gesichtstransplantate im Englischunterricht sprechen

Staging one’s body plays a central role in contemporary society, especially among teenagers. The disfiguration of the face questions one’s self-image and often leads to social exclusion and (self-chosen) isolation. Alyssa Sheinmel’s young adult novel Faceless describes the long journey of Maisie, a teenage girl whose face is severely injured in an accident. This article discusses the use of the novel with (university) students of English as a foreign language and illustrates, in an exemplary fashion, the potential of contemporary young adult literature for dealing with critical topics. The paper concludes by presenting the results of a qualitative study, which shows that reading journals not only serve to document one’s own reading and understanding in the action- and product-oriented literature classroom but also stimulate self-reflection when engaging with taboo(ed) issues.