Speculating the Queer (In)Human: a Critical, Reparative Reading of Contemporary LGBTQ+ Picturebooks
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84 ARTICLES Speculating the Queer (In)Human: A Critical, Reparative Reading of Contemporary LGBTQ+ Picturebooks JON M. WARGO & JAMES JOSHUA COLEMAN Radically questioning and reparatively reading the (in)human, this article extends what counts as queer in critical multicultural children’s literature. HISTORICALLY, EARLY lesbian, gay, bisexual, to spotlight the speculative promise and potential of the transgender, and queer-inclusive (LGBTQ+) picture- fantastic queer (in)human.1 More specifically, we ask: books deployed representations of (in)human characters How is the queer (in)human represented in contempo- (i.e., birds, bunnies, shapeshifters, and more) to open rary LGBTQ+ picturebooks? readers to queer subjects (Young, 2019). While useful What, if anything, does a reparative reading reveal for expanding conceptions of queer life, such a move has about the speculative potential of the queer (in)human? had unintended consequences. The (in)human—here in parentheticals to highlight the violence that minoritized In so doing, we qualify how abject animals and other subjects traverse in their vacillation of human/nonhuman fantastical creatures trouble the ontological underpin- status—has furthered certain undesirable outcomes for nings of both the “human” and the “animal.” For us, such queer representation in critical multicultural children’s representations promise spaces of speculation and repair literature. In seeking to achieve stable humanity, through which we might recognize, while also imagin- LGBTQ+ picturebooks have propelled particular forms ing beyond, the anti-Blackness, misogyny, and queerpho- of queer visibility. Tacitly aligned with 18th-century bia that, as Jackson (2020) pointed out, are inherent in Enlightenment concepts of the liberal hu/Man, LGBTQ+ representations in picturebooks have been primarily 1 Speculation and the speculative—while related to fantasy and white, cisgender, able-bodied, and rational. Such represen- the fantastic—are not synonymous. In this article, speculation tations threaten, indeed reinstate, heteronormative values and the speculative refer to both the potential for and the (e.g., marriage, monogamy) through queer bodies. As action of harnessing textual features common to speculative we suggest, it perpetuates “homonormativity” under the fiction genres to reimage past and present realities. Based guise of a universal human (Duggan, 2002; Hermann- upon available representations within extant LGBTQ+ picturebooks, we focus primarily, though not exclusively, on Wilmarth & Ryan, 2016). fantastic creatures to spotlight their speculative potential for Following mermaids, unicorns, and shapeshifters, reparative, critical readings. in this article, we read across a corpus of 18 picturebooks Journal of Children’s Literature, 47(1), pp. 84–96, 2021. ©Children’s Literature Assembly ISSN 1521-7779 Jon M. Wargo & James Joshua Coleman Speculating the Queer (In)Human 85 categories of both the human and the animal. In the sections that follow, we first locate our project Born of the civil rights movement, in the broader field of critical multicultural children’s critical multicultural children’s literature, taking particular note of the rising trend to both read and represent “homonormativity” in LGBTQ+ literature’s commitment to racial picturebooks (Duggan, 2002; Hermann-Wilmarth & Ryan, justice has propelled advocacy for 2016). Drawing from queer theory and animal studies, we then detail the theoretical framework through which “more accurate and humanizing we illuminated the potential of the queer (in)human as representations of children of color.” an abject figure that troubles homonormative represen- Queer and trans kids, however, both tations (Luciano & Chen, 2015, 2019). Afterward, our methods section details the modes of inquiry that drove those of color and white, remain our corpus’s generation and the critical content analysis underrepresented within CMCL itself we conducted. Our findings spotlight the utility of using and within its attendant social justice critical multicultural analysis to address the abjection of queer (in)human characters in LGBTQ+ picturebooks project. While the reasons for this are (Botelho & Rudman, 2009). Although we argue that likely manifold and such trends are critical reading practices foregrounding power reveal, and in some cases, reify, homonormative logics within contem- shifting, “the closet” provides a porary LGBTQ+ picturebooks, we equally see them as powerful insight into queer striving toward repair. Reading across the corpus, we representational history. detail the pedagogical and theoretical significance of the project and, in doing so, urge readers, teachers, and researchers alike to reimagine a more just future for queer life, both in picturebooks and in the world. than African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Latinx individuals, and Native Americans, Review of Literature standing second only to white children as featured protag- Critical multiculturalism has been deployed within the onists in today’s representational landscape of children’s study of children’s literature to foreground inequities in literature. the representation of human life (Bishop, 1990; Nieto & Born of the civil rights movement, critical multicul- Bode, 2019). As Botelho et al. (2014) explained, “multicul- tural children’s literature’s commitment to racial justice tural children’s literature was a response to racist sociopo- has propelled advocacy for “more accurate and humaniz- litical and publishing practices that contributed to the ing representations of children of color” (Thomas, 2016, p. underrepresentation, misrepresentation, and invisibility of 113). Queer and trans kids, however, both those of color people of color in U.S. society and, by extension, in school and white, remain underrepresented within CMCL itself curricula and children’s literature” (p. 42). Tethered to the and within its attendant social justice project (Botelho & human, critical multicultural children’s literature (CMCL) Rudman, 2009; Crisp et al., 2016; Young, 2019). While the has, in its unflagging address of power and social inequity, reasons for this are likely manifold and such trends are constrained itself to anthropocentric thought.2 Yet publish- shifting (Coleman, 2019a, 2019b; Matos & Wargo, 2019), ing statistics, such as those recently presented by the “the closet” provides a powerful insight into queer represen- Cooperative Children’s Book Center, reveal that anthropo- tational history. Tied to persistent invisibility, both humans morphized animals—nonhuman entities that are assigned and animals have, through their representations, operated human qualities—compose 27% of all children’s book as representational closets within LGBTQ+ picturebooks. protagonists (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, 2019; Importantly, the closet is not merely a place of Dahlen, 2019). Sadly, animals garner more representation shame and hiding. As Brockenbrough (2012) contended, it operates as a locus of both agency and abjection. Through human and more-than-human representations, LGBTQ+ 2 Like the inquiry featured in this article, contemporary picturebooks have both concealed and protected queer life scholarship in critical multicultural children’s literature in the midst of a social world that remains unwilling to is interested in examining anthropomorphic creatures and recognize queer humanity. Within the context of CMCL, controversial issues such as immigration (see, for example, Sotirovska & Kelley, 2020). that same closet has provided a mechanism for queer representation to proliferate despite the continued abjection VOL 47 NO 1 SPRING 2021 JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 86 ARTICLES of queer individuals’ human status. Moreover, the closet and family organization (e.g., gay marriage and the nuclear has created representational possibilities that move beyond family) hallmarks contemporary picturebooks, and sadly, the bounds of the human and into the speculative potential both humans and animal representations have served to of queer (in)humanisms. Fantastic more-than-humans, obscure such power relations (Lester, 2014; Taylor, 2012). hybrid species, and animals, queer (in)human characters Embedded in both human and animal representa- invite speculation beyond the dehumanizing violence of tions, homonormativity can, however, be challenged. By queer abjection and toward reparative futures (Luciano & speculating with a fuller spectrum of queer representa- Chen, 2015, 2019). tion, readers might honor—while also imagining beyond— In LGBTQ+ picturebooks, queer animals have those narratives of tolerance, inclusion, and acceptance operated as representational closets that obscure homopho- that have propelled CMCL inexorably toward homonor- bic power relations. Objectified, animals ranging from mative conceptions of the able-bodied human. Readers birds to bunnies, worms to narwhals have each advanced might turn to queer (in)human figures (e.g., unflap- representations of queer life that provide agency to queer pable unicorns, mythical mermaids, and starry-eyed characters. Whether human or more-than-human, queer shapeshifts) to speculate the promise and possibility of children have been depicted living joy-filled, self-determined queer representation and life beyond domesticated logics lives, even in the face of persistent censorship challenges of homonormativity (Luciano & Chen, 2015, 2019). As levied by queerphobic readers (American Library Associa- Kim (2015) underscored, a “critical inhumanist