Crossover Literature

Crossover is a somewhat slippery term, as it is used with a different meaning in a variety of fields. None of the main entries in the OED, where the word is spelled with a hyphen, refer to literature or to any other art form; rather, they refer to textiles, women’s clothing, railway lines, river currents, and biology. While the final definition of cross-over, “that crosses over; characterized by crossing over,” allows for applications to literature and other arts, the exemplary quotations are limited to fashion and politics. It is not until a draft addition of December 2006 that the arts are mentioned in a meaning originating in the US, where, since the 1970s, crossover has been used to refer to music that finds appeal beyond its niche market with a “different (esp. a wider) audience.” In the field of children’s literature, the term refers specifically to texts that cross age boundaries. As in music, the word is used both as an adjective and a noun that can refer to either “the process or phenomenon” or “a piece… which undergoes this process” (OED). The etymology of the word from the verbal phrase to cross over explains the lexical tensions of a word that can be applied, with a multiplicity of meanings, to a wide range of subjects. Despite some reservation with regard to a term that is used with different meanings in postcolonial studies, gender studies, comics, and music (Falconer 2004, 557), crossover has now been widely adopted, even beyond English-speaking borders, to refer to literature that transcends age boundaries.