Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English & Film Studies

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Dr. Katherine Bell

Advisor Role

Supervisor

Second Advisor

Dr. Robin Waugh

Advisor Role

Doctoral Committee Member

Third Advisor

Dr. Eleanor Ty

Advisor Role

Doctoral Committee Member

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Diverse Voices and Queer Optimisms is an exploration of the ways in which literature for young readers offers a profoundly fruitful space in which to imagine and model ways of being in relation to ourselves, each other, and the more-than-human world that go beyond the constraint of normative logics. Because we imagine adolescence as a precarious life stage, one in which the young person is at risk of straying from the established paths toward a fulfilling and productive adulthood, I argue that adolescence represents a point of impasse in development. Therefore, stories about young people in the processes of becoming can appeal to readers of any age who, themselves, feel the temporality of impasse as they contemplate what flourishing might mean for them, and whether their attachment to the normative objects of cruel optimism stand in their paths.

On one hand, I am responding to the #WENeedDiverseBooks campaign, offering an alternative approach to the question of representation in YA literature beyond seeking out a diversity of identity markers and toward searching for a radical contemplation of how we can be in relation to ourselves, each other, and the more-than-human world with care and respect. On the other hand, I view my work as a response to Kenneth Kidd’s call for literature for young readers to be considered “as a theoretical site in its own right” (186). Similar to the way that Jack Halberstam turns to the “silly archive” (20) in The Queer Art of Failure as texts that “offer strange and anticapitalist logics of being and acting and knowing” that “harbor covert and overt queer worlds” (20-21), I model a way of reading literature for young people that seeks out and celebrates alternatives to developmentalist thinking and reproductive futurism. I argue, ultimately, that literature for young readers has the potential to inspire those who engage with it to (re)imagine what flourishing might mean beyond the normative models of success wrapped up in neoliberal capitalism, heteronormativity, and white supremacy.

Convocation Year

2025

Convocation Season

Spring

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Available for download on Tuesday, November 02, 2027

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