Becoming Mockingjays: Encouraging Student Activism Through the Study of YA Dystopia
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Sean P. Connors Becoming Mockingjays: Encouraging Student Activism through the Study of YA Dystopia here is a pivotal moment early in Mockingjay gender, sexual orientation, and so on, thereby mar- (Collins, 2010), the final book in The Hunger ginalizing some readers. Even when a novel aspires T Games trilogy, when the protagonist, Katniss to impart progressive ideologies, its paratext (Genette Everdeen, comes to fully appreciate her value as the & Maclean, 1991)—the material beyond a story that Mockingjay, a symbol of resistance that gives hope to allows people to recognize a book as a “book”—may those who toil under the Capitol’s oppression. Hav- impede its ability to do so, thus communicating con- ing accepted that performing this role will allow her flicted messages to readers. to speak over the Capitol’s oppressive policies and, in In this article, I advocate for engaging students so doing, contribute to the betterment of her society, in activist work that builds on the political themes Katniss commits to what is, in effect, a political course expressed in YA dystopian fiction, a genre whose of action when she declares, “I’m going to be the popularity has grown exponentially since The Hunger Mockingjay” (Collins, 2010, p. 31). Games (Collins, 2008) was first published and adapted At a time when intolerance of all kinds—from for film. To begin, I argue that while works of YA dys- racism to xenophobia to misogyny to classism to topia appear to position protagonists as empowered heterosexism—threatens the fabric of our democratic figures capable of working for change, their paratext society, educators would do well to ask how they can can circumvent that reading by imparting ideologies support students in following Katniss’s example. To that marginalize, or even oppress, some readers. Next, this end, I have found young adult (YA) dystopia—a I describe a critical inquiry assignment that required genre that participates in the project of social criticism students in a college elective that I designed and (Booker, 1994) and that often (though not always) taught on YA dystopian fiction to visit local book- imagines adolescents as empowered figures capable of stores with the goal of examining how dystopias for fighting oppression and transforming their society—a adolescents are packaged and marketed to readers. valuable teaching resource. YA dystopia is not without After investigating the books’ paratext and identifying problems, however. related social justice issues, the students then com- Some critics argue that works of dystopic fiction, posed short notes in which they highlighted issues such as Collins’s The Hunger Games trilogy (2008, that concerned them. They then returned to the same 2009, 2010) and Roth’s Divergent series (2011, 2012, bookstore and left their notes in copies of those titles 2013), articulate an ideology that privileges the indi- with the goal of raising future readers’ conscious- vidual at the expense of the social collective (see, for ness about those issues. By creating opportunities for example, Morrison, 2014). Like other forms of young students to use their literacy to speak over potentially adult literature, dystopian novels for adolescents can oppressive ideologies, I argue that teachers can invite also reify normalized expectations about race, class, them to become Mockingjays—empowered agents 18 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Fall 2016 f18-29-ALAN-Fall16.indd 18 9/7/16 3:41 PM capable of using reading and writing to act on, and manipulates readers to accept particular ideologies. transform, the world. He consequently encourages educators to support students in reading dystopias critically with the goal Power, Agency, and Ideology in Young of asking how they interpolate (or position) them as Adult Dystopia subjects. Hintz and Ostry (2003) also credit works of dystopian fiction for adolescents with inviting “people Trites (2000) identifies power as a defining character- to view their society with istic of literature for adolescents. In much the same a critical eye, sensitizing way that young adult fiction portrays adolescents them or predisposing them The genre might appear to interacting with social institutions that enable and re- to political action” (p. 7). press them, Trites argues that young adult literature is As Thomas (2012) notes, acknowledge adolescents’ itself an institution, one that is designed to teach ado- however, these books lescents their place within the social power structure. also have the potential to agency, but individual Because YA dystopias feature adolescent protagonists communicate “dangerous novels can invite readers resisting authority and battling oppression, however, messages and old-fash- Trites’s argument about teaching adolescents their ioned, bigoted stereotypes to accept potentially op- place may not appear to apply at first glance. Ames wrapped up in dystopian (2013), for example, argues that in dystopian fiction packaging” (para. 2). A pressive ideologies that for adolescents, it is “young people—willing or not— theme that concerns all of marginalize some people. who must confront [their] fears and ultimately solve the aforementioned critics the problems that spawn them” (p. 6). In this sense, has to do with the value of dystopian fiction for adolescents acknowledges teen- creating opportunities for students to examine dysto- agers’ agency by portraying them as figures capable of pian fiction for adolescents critically. The genre might working for change. appear to acknowledge adolescents’ agency, but indi- For Thomas (2014), power is a central concern of vidual novels can invite readers to accept potentially YA dystopian fiction. She regards the genre as offer- oppressive ideologies that marginalize some people. ing readers “a kind of wish fulfilment; not as the life we wish to overcome, but as the power and influence Attending to Paratext we wish we could have” (para. 2). Like Hintz and Ostry (2003), who argue that YA dystopias appeal to Attesting to the value of inviting students to read adolescents’ desire for “power and control” (p. 9), literature for adolescents critically, Hollindale (1988) Thomas (2014) interprets the genre as a metaphor for distinguishes between a text’s surface ideology, adolescence. She notes that YA dystopias are often wherein an author’s personal beliefs and values are set in “worlds full of rules, where all choices are communicated to readers through explicit ideological taken away” (para. 4). Moreover, she notes that these statements made by a narrator or character in a story stories take place in societies that “dictate everything (pp. 10–11), and passive ideology, which is communi- about the protagonists’ lives, from what they eat and cated implicitly via an author’s unexamined assump- wear to who they marry, how many kids they have, tions (p. 12). Writes Hollindale, “A large part of any and what careers they pursue” (para. 4). If these book is written not by its author but by the world storyworlds are undesirable, however, “they can also its author lives in” (p. 15). Amending Hollindale’s be changed” (para. 3). Like Sambell (2004), Thomas assertion slightly, one might argue that a part of any (2014) argues that YA dystopias ultimately offer book is written not by its author but by the multitude readers “hope that we will overcome the restrictions of people who contribute to its material production. placed on us” (para. 7). Among others, this includes literary agents, who may Campbell (2010) believes that dystopian fiction encourage an author to modify her creative vision for for adolescents invites readers to “look critically at the the purpose of selling publishers on a book; editors power structures that envelop and seek to construct who, in responding to an author’s work, might ask them” (p. 2), though he cautions that the genre also her to revise (or rewrite) portions of a story; and the 19 HE EVIEW T ALAN R Fall 2016 f18-29-ALAN-Fall16.indd 19 9/7/16 3:41 PM people involved in designing and marketing a book for counter in books, however. As educators, we (like our consumption by readers. In this article, I am interested students) might assume that a narrative “is the kernel in the how the latter group’s contributions work to of value and significance while the rest is merely a communicate passive ideologies to readers. protective husk” (Yampbell, 2005, p. 348), but this as- Genette and Maclean (1991) argue that a “text sumption can blind us to the important role that para- rarely appears in its naked state, without the rein- text plays in shaping the ideological messages a work forcement and accompaniment of a certain number of of literature imparts to readers. By inviting students to productions, themselves ask how YA dystopias (and other texts, for that mat- verbal or not, like an au- ter) are packaged and marketed—that is, by encourag- By encouraging students thor’s name, a title, a pref- ing them to attend critically to their paratext—teachers ace, [and] illustrations” (p. can support their understanding of how these books to adopt a critical stance 261). In making this argu- position them as subjects and how they reify ideolo- ment, they direct attention gies that marginalize some people. Moreover, because and attend closely to the to what literary critics refer close reading of the sort that I am proposing requires to as paratext, “the means that students attend to multiple modes—for example, paratext that surrounds by which a text makes a images, words, and colors—with the goal of under- works of dystopian fiction book of itself and proposes standing how they work together to convey meaning, itself as such to its readers, it encourages them to participate in the multiliteracies for adolescents, the as- and more generally to the that many writers argue are characteristic of 21st- public” (p. 261). Simply century communication (e.g., Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; signment challenged them put, the term paratext New London Group, 1996; Serafini, 2014).