University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Consuming Identities: Response, Revision, and Reimagining in Adolescent Transactions With Branded Young Adult Fiction Nora Peterman University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration Commons, Liberal Studies Commons, and the Secondary Education and Teaching Commons Recommended Citation Peterman, Nora, "Consuming Identities: Response, Revision, and Reimagining in Adolescent Transactions With Branded Young Adult Fiction" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1944. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1944 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1944 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Consuming Identities: Response, Revision, and Reimagining in Adolescent Transactions With Branded Young Adult Fiction Abstract While children’s and young adult literature has always been a product marketed and sold for profit, the past two decades have seen a dramatic upsurge in young adult literature that is transmediated and commercially “branded” (Sekeres, 2009), positioning these books as only one product of many sold in a franchise. Despite the popularity of branded young adult fiction, little is known about how adolescent readers are navigating and valuing the myriad commercial products that are part of their reading experiences. The growing popularity of young adult literature, its increasing commodification as branded fiction, and concomitant concerns about its diminishing literary quality and implicit consumerist socialization of youth make the present an especially important moment to learn more about the literacy practices of adolescents engaging with branded young adult fiction. This dissertation study investigated how a group of Hispanic youth read between and across print, media, and material branded young adult fiction texts, critically analyzing how participants made sense of these texts through social interactions and considering the ethical and political implications of their engagement in the literature. Drawing from intersectional, feminist research traditions, this qualitative study is grounded in a conceptual framework of critical, sociocultural perspectives of literacy, resource orientations toward youth culture and identity, and transactional theories of reader response. Eleven ninth grade students participated in a weekly afterschool group in which they collectively engaged in an inquiry into branded young adult fiction. Additional data were collected through focus groups, semi-structured interviews, participant observation, survey, and artifact analysis. This research provides insight into possibilities for branded young adult fiction ot occupy multiple and contradictory spaces in adolescents’ lived worlds. Participants’ transactions with these texts reflected the ambiguous positioning of print novels within franchises, contested traditional notions of reader, author, and interpretive authority, and suggested pedagogical opportunities for conceptualizing reading and reader response as embodied and materially situated. As participants engaged with branded fiction, their negotiations offer new understandings of the agency enacted by youth as they, through their entanglement with popular culture and prevailing consumerist forces, take critical positions, audition different identities, and create and inhabit multiple worlds. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Vivian L. Gadsden Keywords Adolescent Literacy, Adolescent Literature, English Education, Youth Culture Subject Categories Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education | Elementary and Middle and Secondary Education Administration | Liberal Studies | Secondary Education and Teaching This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1944 CONSUMING IDENTITIES: RESPONSE, REVISION, AND REIMAGINING IN ADOLESCENT TRANSACTIONS WITH BRANDED YOUNG ADULT FICTION Nora Ann Peterman A DISSERTATION in Education Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation __________________________ Vivian L. Gadsden, William T. Carter Professor of Education Graduate Group Chairperson __________________________ J. Matthew Hartley, Professor of Education Dissertation Committee Vivian L. Gadsden, William T. Carter Professor of Education H. Gerald Campano, Associate Professor of Education Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Assistant Professor of Education CONSUMING IDENTITIES: RESPONSE, REVISION, AND REIMAGINING IN ADOLESCENT TRANSACTIONS WITH BRANDED YOUNG ADULT FICTION COPYRIGHT 2016 Nora Ann Peterman This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation reflects the hard work and support of many people. First, I am thankful for the wisdom, compassion, and mentorship of my advisor, Dr. Vivian Gadsden. Over the past five years, she has provided tremendous inspiration and guidance as a researcher, teacher, writer, mentor, advocate, and friend. I hope to approach my own practice with the care and intellectual and ethical commitments that you continually embody. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your time so generously—I cannot imagine a better role model throughout this process. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Dr. Gerald Campano and Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, for providing invaluable insight and knowledge throughout my doctoral studies. Your support and the example you set in everyday practice has challenged and inspired me in my attempts to become a more thoughtful and responsible researcher, educator, and community member. I deeply appreciate your patience, encouragement, high expectations, and unceasing goodwill. I am also grateful to Dr. Susan Lytle, who has been an important influence on my teaching and research since I first came to Penn as a Masters student. Your commitment to work that values the intellectual and creative capacities of teachers, students, and families helped shape this project and my developing identity as a scholar. I am deeply grateful for the trust, enthusiasm, and insight of the eleven participants who volunteered their time for this project, and for the support and goodwill of their classmates, teachers, and staff at Unidos Academy. Thank you for welcoming me into your lives and for contributing to this research. I am also indebted to the caring community of colleagues who have shared this iii journey with me. I owe an enormous amount of appreciation to Katrina Bartow Jacobs, my friend and partner-in-crime. Thank you for sharing your candor, intellect, humor, and grace with me in our many personal and professional adventures. I am also grateful to Robert LeBlanc, David Low, Rachel Skrlac Lo, Phil Nichols, Charlotte Jacobs, and Lan Ngo. Your friendship (and hugs) brought laughter and joy to this process, and your insightful feedback has made me better thinker, writer, and scholar. I deeply appreciate the intergenerational community of “Team VG” and the spirited connections, ideas, and dialogue that I shared with Karim Mostafa, Danielle Goia, Rhiannon Maton, Wintre Foxworth, and Sherea Mosley. I still have much to learn from and with you. Thanks as well to the administrative staff of R/W/L – Lorraine Hightower, Penny Creedon, Mary Schlesinger, and Suzanne Oh – for encouraging and supporting me throughout my studies. Finally, I would like to thank my family for the love, support, and encouragement you have always given me. To my husband, parents, stepparents, and brother: Thank you for believing in me— I undoubtedly could not have done this without you. iv ABSTRACT CONSUMING IDENTITIES: RESPONSE, REVISION, AND REIMAGINING IN ADOLESCENT TRANSACTIONS WITH BRANDED YOUNG ADULT FICTION Nora A. Peterman Vivian L. Gadsden While children’s and young adult literature has always been a product marketed and sold for profit, the past two decades have seen a dramatic upsurge in young adult literature that is transmediated and commercially “branded” (Sekeres, 2009), positioning these books as only one product of many sold in a franchise. Despite the popularity of branded young adult fiction, little is known about how adolescent readers are navigating and valuing the myriad commercial products that are part of their reading experiences. The growing popularity of young adult literature, its increasing commodification as branded fiction, and concomitant concerns about its diminishing literary quality and implicit consumerist socialization of youth make the present an especially important moment to learn more about the literacy practices of adolescents engaging with branded young adult fiction. This dissertation study investigated how a group of Hispanic youth read between and across print, media, and material branded young adult fiction texts, critically analyzing how participants made sense of these texts through social interactions and considering the ethical and political implications of their engagement in the literature. Drawing from intersectional, feminist