“Lock up Your Sons”: Queering Young Adult Literature and Social Discourse

“LOCK UP YOUR SONS”: QUEERING YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AND SOCIAL DISCOURSE by Rebekah Wheadon Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax, Nova Scotia August 2012 © Copyright by Rebekah Wheadon, 2012 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled “‘LOCK UP YOUR SONS’: QUEERING YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AND SOCIAL DISCOURSE” by Rebekah Wheadon in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Dated: August 17, 2012 Supervisor: _________________________________ Readers: _________________________________ _________________________________ ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: August 17, 2012 AUTHOR: Rebekah Wheadon TITLE: “Lock Up Your Sons”: Queering Young Adult Literature and Social Discourse DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of English DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2012 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author’s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Signature of Author iii For all the other kids who were always digging through used book stores and searching every library shelf for novels with queer characters. Hopefully, that same activity will be easier (thank you, internet), and the books you find will be less horrible. I hope that someday we won’t have to search for queer teens on the page in order to try and place ourselves in the world. Until then, however, remember: car crashes may figure prominently in YA with LGBTQ teens, but there isn’t any link between being queer and being a bad driver. Correlation—especially the literary kind!—does not equal causation. Just in case, though, buckle up. And read fearlessly (just not while driving). iv Table of Contents ABSTRACT......................................................................................................................vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED...............................................................................viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..............................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................1 CHAPTER II: “MORE THAN COMING OUT STORIES”: CONTEMPORARY YA, QUEER YOUTH, AND LITERARY DIVERSIFICATION...................................12 i. Silence, Confession, and Queer Discursive Analysis..............................................13 ii. “Doomed Unfortunates”: A History of LGBTQ Representation in YA................22 iii. Conclusion.............................................................................................................36 CHAPTER III: “A MILLION LITTLE PAPERCUTS EVERY DAY”: QUEER PAIN, SOCIAL SCRIPTS, AND THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS..................38 i. Invisible Things: Queer Pain and Isolation.............................................................39 ii. “I guess you’re coming as my date”: Heteronormativity and Queer Poisoning....47 iii. Conclusion............................................................................................................51 CHAPTER IV: LAVENDER SHIRTS AND EARRINGS: SARAH REES BRENNAN’S DEMONS TRILOGY, PARODY, AND A HUGE MAGICAL BADASS..........................................................................................................................54 i. “He’s harmless”: Femininity, Parody, and Lavender.............................................55 ii. A Third Tier Mark: Contagion and Heteronormativity.........................................65 iii. Conclusion............................................................................................................69 CHAPTER V: “MOM, YOU KNOW THAT FORBIDDEN LOVE THAT SPOCK HAS FOR KIRK? WELL, ME TOO”: HOLLY BLACK’S MODERN FAERIE TALES AND QUEER RECUPERATION......................................................................71 i. Shonen Ai and a Mullet: Queer Desire and Antagonism.......................................72 ii. “Let everything you touch wither”: Glamour, Curses, and Queer Recuperation..............................................................................................................80 v iii. Conclusion............................................................................................................83 CHAPTER VI: CONCLUSION.....................................................................................85 BIBLIOGRAPHY...........................................................................................................89 vi Abstract Young adult literature (YA) has been stereotypical in many of its portrayals of LGBTQ teens from the 1960s to the early 2000s, but three contemporary YA series--Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instruments, Sarah Rees Brennan's Demons trilogy, and Holly Black's Modern Faerie Tales--indicate a change toward more nuanced characterizations. Using four categories--scriptedness, context, importance, and sexuality--to determine whether these representations of LGBTQ youth challenge or reiterate older tropes, my analysis indicates that YA has moved toward more complex representations of queerness, yet some normative discursive structures are still at work, such as poisonings or curses, supernatural parallels to coming out, and heteronormative humour. Although representations of queerness have diversified, then, the implicit ideologies in each author's portrayal of queerness demands closer attention. vii List of Abbreviations Used APA American Psychological Association Bodies Bodies That Matter (Judith Butler) CoA City of Ashes (Cassandra Clare) CoB City of Bones (Cassandra Clare) CoFA City of Fallen Angels (Cassandra Clare) CoG City of Glass (Cassandra Clare) CoLS City of Lost Souls (Cassandra Clare) Covenant The Demon’s Covenant (Sarah Rees Brennan) Lexicon The Demon’s Lexicon (Sarah Rees Brennan) LGBTQ Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and queer Surrender The Demon’s Surrender (Sarah Rees Brennan) YA Young adult literature viii Acknowledgements I wish to acknowledge the excellent guidance of Dr. Anthony Enns throughout this process. When I first approached Dr. Enns with breathless enthusiasm for what I saw as a project that would combine my passion for YA with my academic pursuits, he responded with a similar excitement. Dr. Enns has always had faith in my ability to reign this project in and produce worthwhile work, and that innate trust in my ability to complete this thesis has helped me have faith in myself. Throughout, Dr. Enns has been encouraging, insightful, and interested. I cannot imagine having a better supervisor and feel immensely privileged to have worked with him. My sincerest thanks to my second reader, Dr. Jason Haslam, for his invaluable insight on the topic of queer theory and his incredibly kind comments and critiques. I am also grateful for Dr. Kathy Cawsey’s input on young adult literature, teenage sexuality, and parsing out some statistics that were giving me a bit of trouble. In addition, I would like to thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada for their generous funding through the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship program. Without the assistance from SSHRC, this year would not have been possible. I was fortunate enough to be part of an exceptional group of graduate students, each and every one of whom has helped me on this year’s journey. While I cannot say that every step of the process has been fun (with the exception of every Friday afternoon—those were a blast!), working alongside this wonderful group of men and women has kept me motivated, inspired, and excited. If only every graduate student was ix so lucky to have such an excellent support network, I imagine a lot more of us would make it through our degrees with our hearts intact. Thanks, friends. My parents have been wonderfully supportive throughout this process: from check-ins to encouraging words and miniature vacations in the Valley, they’ve helped me pull through the hard times with an unwavering confidence in my ability to finish this thesis. I count myself fortunate to have such intelligent and engaged parents. And, yes, Mum, you’ll definitely be able to understand what follows! Finally, my most heartfelt thanks to my partner, Kerstin Wilson, who always had faith that I could not only complete this work, but that I was also doing something important. This is for you, lady. x Chapter I: Introduction Young adult literature, also known as YA,1 is a specific genre of literature that originated in the 1960s (Jenkins, “Queer” 298). Although children’s literature has been a robust subset of literature since medieval times,2 YA is crafted specifically for adolescents and teenagers and thus distinguishes itself from children’s literature by addressing specifically “teenage” issues. Christine Jenkins argues that YA is “centered on the

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