Romanticizing depression in "Thirteen Reasons Why": the risk and conflicts as perceived by readers
Abstract
Depression that has known nowadays has adversely affected people's quality of life and happiness has become one of the most critical social problems, especially among readers who experienced suicidal thoughts. A phenomenological study was used to conduct the research, coming to our readers' own experiences. Moreover, this thesis incorporates the Readers Response approach by Rosenblatt. This study is conducted on 14 students who already read the book, seven in-depth interviews, and seven focus group discussions, and the study was conducted online due to pandemics. The informants were students of the University of Mindanao Tagum College. In addition, questions were asked to the informants to identify the risks and conflicts they perceived in reading the book. As a result, essential themes were generated, namely: depression, hopelessness, unwanted and unloved.