Narratives of Personal Experience as Literacy Practices in an LGBT-Themed Literature Course: Power, Vulnerability, Protection

• In Event: Diverse Lives

Abstract

This presentation draws from a semester-long ethnographic study of an LGBT themed literature course at a queer-friendly charter high school in a mid-sized Midwestern city. It analyzes a telling case of a literacy event involving a gay-themed young adult novel read with exploratory interpretive purposes. In this event, some LGBTQQ-identifying youth elected to use narratives of personal experience to make meaning in ways that positioned them as vulnerable while some straight-identifying youth did so in ways that positioned them as protected. These positionings resulted from taleworld-telling world configurations that differentially located threat and power among youth, parents, and publics. The findings suggest a need to rethink “safe space” discourses and to trouble notions of safety and danger in learning.

Authors

• Ryan Schey, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Mollie V. Blackburn, The Ohio State University