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Diplomarbeit / Diploma Thesis DIPLOMARBEIT / DIPLOMA THESIS Titel der Diplomarbeit / Title of the Diploma Thesis “Of Girly Girls and Bad Boys: An Analysis of Imbalanced Heterosexual Relationship Dynamics in Young Adult Fantasy Novels” verfasst von / submitted by Anna Zimmerl angestrebter akademischer Grad / in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Magistra der Philosophie (Mag. phil.) Wien, 2018 / Vienna, 2018 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt / A 190 344 299 degree programme code as it appears on the student record sheet: Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt / Lehramtsstudium UF Englisch degree programme as it appears on UF Psychologie und Philosophie the student record sheet: Betreut von / Supervisor: Univ. Prof. Dr. Sylvia Mieszkowski, MA Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sylvia Mieszkowski who encouraged me to consider the broader ideological implications of representations of gender and sexuality. Her feedback and insights have helped immensely in writing and revising this thesis. I would also like to thank friends and family who have supported me throughout my studies. Special thanks go out to my parents for their continuous emotional and financial support. I want to especially thank my mum for inspiring my love for the English language. I hope that one day I’ll be half the teacher you are. I also want to thank my sister with whom I can share my love for, and sometimes also frustration with, fantasy novels. And finally, thank you to Christina, my best friend, for being the linguistics to my literature. So glad to have had you by my side throughout our time at the English department. Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Fantasy Literature and Children’s Fantasy ....................................................................... 4 1.2 Young Adult Literature .................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Gender Roles in Young Adult Fantasy Novels ................................................................ 9 1.4 The Power of Young Adult Literature ............................................................................ 11 1.5 Objects of Analysis ......................................................................................................... 15 2 Gender: Masculinities and Femininities ................................................................................ 16 2.1 Hegemonic Masculinity .................................................................................................. 17 2.2 World Building ............................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Characterisations: The ACOTAR series .......................................................................... 26 2.3.1 Tamlin ...................................................................................................................... 26 2.3.2 Rhysand .................................................................................................................... 31 2.3.3 Feyre ........................................................................................................................ 34 2.4 Characterisations: The TMI series .................................................................................. 38 2.4.1 Jace ........................................................................................................................... 38 2.4.2 Simon ....................................................................................................................... 39 2.4.3 Clary ......................................................................................................................... 41 2.5 Homosexuality and Heteronormativity .......................................................................... 43 3 Gender, Violence and Toughness .......................................................................................... 47 3.1 Gender-based Violence ................................................................................................... 47 3.2 Toughness ....................................................................................................................... 50 3.3 Lack of Diversity Among Female Characters ................................................................ 53 3.3.1 The ACOTAR Series ................................................................................................ 53 3.3.2 The TMI Series ......................................................................................................... 60 4 Objectification ....................................................................................................................... 63 4.1 Objectification Theory .................................................................................................... 64 4.2 Sexual Objectification .................................................................................................... 70 5 Idea of Love .......................................................................................................................... 83 5.1 Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love .......................................................................... 84 5.2 Romantic Idea of Love as Portrayed in the Novels ........................................................ 88 5.2.1 Feyre’s Relationships ............................................................................................... 89 5.2.2 Clary’s Relationships ............................................................................................... 96 6 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 104 7 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................ 107 7.1 Primary Sources ............................................................................................................ 107 7.2 Secondary Sources ........................................................................................................ 107 8 Appendix ............................................................................................................................. 113 8.1 Abstract ......................................................................................................................... 113 8.2 Zusammenfassung ........................................................................................................ 114 1 Introduction Relationships, especially heterosexual romantic ones, have been one of literature’s most pervasive subjects for centuries. Ranging from classics such as William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1597) or Jane Austen’s Georgian society novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) to more contemporary bestsellers like Nicholas Sparks’s The Notebook (1996) or Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You (2012), it is not only within the romance genre, but also in a number of other genres (e.g. tragedies), that finding love and maintaining romantic relationships greatly influence how the stories’ plot progresses. Novels within the young adult fantasy genre, for instance, typically feature several romantic relationships and heavily rely on these heterosexual pairings throughout the story. The majority of novels with elements of romantic love still follow and implicitly or explicitly sustain the heteronormative order. However, several exceptions can be named, which promote other romantic relationships than heterosexual ones. Especially within young adult contemporary literature recent efforts have been made to include and discuss different sexualities and establish these as part of the norm rather than ‘the Other’ in relation to heterosexual relationships. For example, there have been some recent young adult publications which feature gay couples, e.g. John Green and David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010), Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012), Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015), or Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun (2014), and some, if fewer, novels which feature lesbian couples, e.g. Julie Maroh’s Blue Is the Warmest Color (2010), or bisexual couples, e.g. Mackenzie Lee’s The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue (2017). Rarely does one find an inclusion of asexuality in novels, Seanan McGuire’s Every Heart a Doorway (2016) is the notable exception that proves the rule. Even though this recent development of a more inclusive concept of sexuality will most likely continue, it cannot be denied that the vast majority of stories, especially the most widely read publications within the young adult fantasy genre, including the two series selected as the objects of analysis, The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare (2007-2014) and A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (2015-2017), centre around a heterosexual female protagonist who finds herself caught between two male lovers who compete with each other to win her heart. In these stories homosexual relationships are either non-existent or situated at the margins, e.g. gay minor characters. I will turn to a closer examination of the love triangles 1 between each series’ heroine and two young men shortly. Overall, it can be said that love continues to be a widely-discussed topic in literature,
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