Dystopia as Agency: Navigating Post-Truth Narratives in Young Adult Literature and English Language Arts Classrooms

• In Event: 43.080 - Sheraton Roundtable Six - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 43.080-3 - Curricular Readings and Queer Theorizing

Abstract

This study examines representations of gender, sexuality, and other identity categories in two popular young adult dystopias. Using a queer lens, we investigate how authors and their protagonists seek to contest and reimagine alternative boundaries of utopia and futurity. We draw on the Indigenous concept of survivance to examine how the protagonists work to survive and resist oppressive norms that marginalize them and their communities. Our findings offer a critique of contemporary sociocultural organization to consider how norms are rendered and the curricular implications for readers. Our work connects to conversations occurring within and across critical educational discourse communities that explore and expand our understanding of cultural production and narratives of marginalization that are shared with youth.

Authors

• Nora Peterman, University of Missouri - Kansas City

• Rachel Skrlac Lo, Villanova University