Twenty-First Century Feminisms in Children's and Adolescent Literature

243 Pages·2017·5.339 MB·English

by  Roberta Seelinger Trites (author)

TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY
FEMINISMS
CHILDREN’S
IN
ADOLESCENT
AND
LITERATURE
Children’s Literature Association Series
TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY
FEMINISMS
CHILDREN’S
IN
ADOLESCENT
AND
LITERATURE
ROBERTA SEELINGER TRITES
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
Children’s Literature Association Series
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the
Association of American University Presses.
Cover art by Katharine Anne Seelinger, age 19
Portions of Chapter 1 also appear in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature;
portions of Chapter 3 appear in Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.
Copyright © 2018 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2018
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Trites, Roberta Seelinger, 1962– author.
Title: Twenty-first-century feminisms in children’s and adolescent literature / Roberta
Seelinger Trites.
Description: Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2018] | Series: Children’s literature
association series | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017032086 (print) | LCCN 2017042739 (ebook) | ISBN 9781496813817
(epub single) | ISBN 9781496813824 (epub institutional) | ISBN 9781496813831 (pdf single) |
ISBN 9781496813848 (pdf institutional) | ISBN 9781496813800 (hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: Children’s stories, American—History and criticism. | Young adult fiction,
American—History and criticism. | Feminism and literature. | Feminism in literature. |
Feminists in literature. | Girls in literature. | Sex role in literature. | BISAC: LITERARY
CRITICISM / Children’s Literature. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory. |
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Children’s Studies.
Classification: LCC PS374.C454 (ebook) | LCC PS374.C454 T75 2018 (print) | DDC
813/.6099282—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017032086
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
I dedicate this book to my children—
George, John, and Katie—
with gratitude that they’ve grown up to be
the feminists I always hoped they’d be.

CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IX
INTRODUCTION XI
CHAPTER 1
Becoming, Mattering, and “Knowing in Being” in Feminist Novels
for the Young 3
CHAPTER 2
Intersectionalities and Multiplicities
Race and Materiality in Literature for the Young 31
CHAPTER 3
Ecofeminism, the Material, and Genre 59
CHAPTER 4
Speculative Fictions, Embodiment, and the Neoliberal Impulse 85
CHAPTER 5
Queering Romance, Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Motherhood 120
CHAPTER 6
Caring, Disability Studies, and Narrative Structure 156
NOTES 187
WORKS CITED 192
INDEX 205

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am fortunate to belong to various communities of academics who have
shaped my vision and supported my scholarship. At Illinois State University,
Mary Jeanette Moran influenced me to consider a more careful study of
feminist ethics of care, while Chris Breu introduced me to material femi-
nism. I am also grateful to the many members of ISU’s Department of
English who have made me the feminist I am today: Lee Brasseur, Susan
Burt, Karen Coats, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Kass Fleisher, Sarah Hochstetler,
Cynthia Huff, Tim Hunt, Hilary Justice, Susan Kalter, Susan Kim, Robert
McLaughlin, Sally Parry, Amy Robillard, K. Aaron Smith, and Jan Susina.
Several of our graduate students have been instrumental in helping me
develop the ideas in this project, most notably Tharini Viswanath, who fine-
tooth combed the manuscript, and members of various graduate seminars,
including Jenn Coletta, Lauren Gray, Karly Grice, Shannon Harman, Amy
Hicks, Wesley Jacques, Agathe Lancrenon, Katy Lewis, Rebecca Lorenzo,
Meghann Meeusen, Niall Nance-Carroll, Beth Pearce, Eric Pitman, Scott
Pyrz, Shelby Ragan, Erika Romero, Katy Stein, Danielle Sutton, Britni Wil-
liams, Elizabeth Williams, and Emily Woster.
The larger community of children’s literature scholars in the Children’s
Literature Association and IRSCL has also given me more inspiration and
encouragement than I could ever have hoped for. Margaret Mackey and
Mark West have been consistently enthusiastic about this project, and Jackie
Horne’s insightful commentary has also proven to be enormously helpful.
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to learn from such scholars in
these two organizations as Michelle Ann Abate, Hari Adhikari, Marina Ba-
lina, Linda Benson, Mike Cadden, Joseph W. Campbell, Ramona Caponegro,
Kate Capshaw, Joel Chaston, Beverly Lyon Clark, Amanda Cockrell, Paula
Connelly, Sean P. Connors, Sara K. Day, Gregory Eiselein, Liz Gillhouse,
Stacy Greathouse, Melody Green, Melanie Goss, Libby Gruner, Marah
Gubar, Betsy Hearne, Martha Hixon, Peter Hunt, Billie Jarvis-Freeman,
Judith John, Vanessa Joosen, Kara Keeling, Adrienne Kertzer, Kenneth Kidd,
Jon Klassen, Lydia Kokkola, Don Latham, Sue Larkin, Greta Little, Kerry
Mallan, Beth Marshall, Michelle H. Martin, Muhammad Masud, Jill P. May,
Chris McGee, Rose Miller, Jennie Miskec, Mpale Mwansasu-Silkiluwasha,
IX