Female Sexuality, Bullying, and Power Relations in Young Adult Literature

University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses July 2016 Reading Power: Female Sexuality, Bullying, and Power Relations in Young Adult Literature Cara C. Crandall University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Crandall, Cara C., "Reading Power: Female Sexuality, Bullying, and Power Relations in Young Adult Literature" (2016). Doctoral Dissertations. 630. https://doi.org/10.7275/8313184.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/630 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reading Power: Female Sexuality, Bullying, and Power Relations in Young Adult Literature A Dissertation Presented by CARA C. CRANDALL Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May 2016 College of Education Department of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies Language, Literacy, and Culture © Copyright by Cara C. Crandall 2016 All Rights Reserved Reading Power: Female Sexuality, Bullying, and Power Relations in Young Adult Literature A Dissertation Presented by CARA C. CRANDALL Approved as to style and content by: _________________________________________ Denise K. Ives, Chair _________________________________________ Anne Herrington, Member _________________________________________ J. Camille Cammack, Member _________________________________________ Maria José Botelho, Member _________________________________________ Robert S. Feldman, Interim Dean College of Education DEDICATION To my beloved son Andrew David Who has taught me all I know about living bravely and fearlessly And To my grandmother Josephine Palladino Sasso Who knew the woman I could become long before I even imagined such possibilities Ti Viglio Bene ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation and my journey in a doctoral program would never have occurred without the mentorship of three important women in my life: Dr. Dawn Skorczewski, Dr. Lisa Patel Stevenss, and Dr. Denise Ives. Dawn was the person who not only believed I belonged in a doctoral program; she believed I should enter one immediately and without hesitation. But life intervened, and several years later Leigh was the next person who pushed aside my fears about my abilities and age with a simple question, “What kind of 50s do you want to have?” When I finally arrived at the University of Massachusetts, Denise took an interest in my work and in me as an emerging scholar. My debt to her is immense because as my advisor Denise has provided me with a keen balance of challenge and support. I am incredibly fortunate that she has worked with me over these last several years. My gratitude to each of these women is immeasurable because they not only saw potential in me, but they also took the time to cultivate and encourage that potential. I am also indebted to Dr. Laura Valdiviezo, Dr. Kysa Nygreen and Dr. Sally Galman who also helped to further my research and provided me platforms while still a doctoral student to share my work. In addition, Dr. Nygreen and Dr. Galman graciously served as members of my comps committee, providing insights that have helped to shape the direction of this dissertation. I also appreciate the time, insights, and generosity of the members of my dissertation committee including Dr. Maria José Botelho, Dr. Anne Herrington, Dr. J. Camille Cammack, and Dr. Denise Ives. Your guiding hands and encouragement have v sustained me throughout the months of writing and have helped me transform my data and analysis into this dissertation. While faculty offer important guidance and resources, the friendships and camaraderie of fellow travelers on this journey are also integral to my accomplishments. I would like to thank Leta Hooper, Sonji Johnson-Anderson, and Jennifer Lee O’Donnell for their support and help. Even more, I appreciate their work and presence in the world as examples of people who are committed to justice, equality, and the ideal of the Beloved Community. Many professional colleagues and friends have sustained me over the years, but I would like to acknowledge in particular Carline Silva, Jane Mars, Maryellen Gallant, Anita Kimball, and Lianne Lajoie. Each of you has made me a better teacher and a better person through the ways you carry yourself in the world, your years of friendship and support to me, and the dedication you show to the students we have taught, loved, and fought for over the years. In addition, my love and gratitude to Brenda Norris and Brian Birmingham, both dear friends who have honored me with their presence in my life for many, many years and have nourished me with encouragement in the most challenging of times. I am most indebted to the Girls’ Group at Garden Grove Middle School who shared their lives, their hopes, and their experiences with me. The faith and willingness they showed in sharing with me their most important ideas and feelings is a testament to their competence, resilience, and desire to be known and appreciated by others. Without their generous work with me, none of this dissertation or my other research projects would have occurred. I hope my work does justice to all you have done for me. vi When I was a little girl, I spent much of my time with my maternal grandmother Josephine Sasso, who had dreamed of having a career and never marrying. Her family, her time, and her culture forced her into roles far from her aspirations. Instead, she used her disappointments to fuel her belief about the woman I could become if only I, too, believed. I hope she is proud of all I have become, because I am so grateful to her for the model she provided of a strong woman who must find her place in the world in her own terms. vii ABSTRACT READING POWER: FEMALE SEXUALITY, BULLYING AND POWER RELATIONS IN YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE MAY 2016 CARA CRANDALL, B.S., MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS M.F.A., EMERSON COLLEGE Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Denise K. Ives Over the last thirty years, American society and schools have struggled to understand and respond to bullying and harassment by young people. In that time, scholars and policy makers have worked not only to understand this phenomenon but to also create interventions that can prevent such incidents because the consequences of bullying have been shown to be so detrimental for all involved. Adult concerns with peer aggression has led to a proliferation of young adult (YA) novels that take bullying as their narrative focus. Such novels are popular among young people as part of their personal reading practices and increasingly are being integrated into English curricula in American schools for a variety of reasons. However, not only has YA literature previously not been seen as worthy for inclusion in the classroom, but also the genre has been largely ignored by literary critics. This theoretical gap is especially true of novels about bullying. In this dissertation I report findings from an analysis of seven YA novels. I completed both a narrative analysis of these novels as well as a discourse analysis using poststructural feminism and feminist critical discourse analysis. In order to understand contemporary discourses on bullying, female sexuality, and power relations within each viii novel, I employed modes of address as an analytic tool to identify and discuss the subject positions afforded readers within the text and how these subject positions reflect discourses at work in the real world. My findings include discourses on the problematic nature of adolescents, and female friendships in particular. My findings also explore discourses of sexuality and romantic partnership that follow a heteronormative script and depict both as dangerous for young women. I then outline implications for English language arts teachers, researchers, and adults in light of these findings with an emphasis on the critical approach needed to identity and disrupt hegemonic discourses around adolescence, female sexuality, and power. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................................. v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 1 Dissertation Origins and Role of Researcher ..................................................................................... 12 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................. 19 Adolescence ..................................................................................................................................................... 20 Bullying .............................................................................................................................................................. 25 Relational Aggression .................................................................................................................................

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