Systemic oppression in contemporary children's fantastika literature
2019
This dissertation investigates the representation and narratological function of
systemic oppression in the fictional worlds of contemporary middle-grade fantastika
novels. This project aims to add further insights to current discussions regarding
diversity and social justice literature for young readers. In order to distinguish
between the forms of oppression a text critiques and those it accepts as natural and
normal, this thesis offers a method for identifying and critiquing the representation
of systemic oppression in fictional contexts.
This research deploys Black Feminist criticism in the analysis of over one
hundred Anglophone middle-grade fantastika novels published in the first twenty
years of the twenty-first century (2000-2019) from Canada, the United States, the
United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia. Patricia Hill Collins’ theory of the matrix of
domination, a theoretical approach to the differing domains of power in a system of
oppression, is the foundational framework that informs this project.
This thesis’s findings include the ways in which defamiliarization may be used
to improve understandings of systemic oppression. A fictional world’s ability to
construct familiar social structures in new and innovative ways offers scholars the
opportunity to analyze and understand the organization, management, justification
and experiences of oppression in different contexts. This allows for an understanding
of oppression outside of the examples found in the scholar’s own particular context.
From here, narratological and rhetorical studies of literature can better develop
nuanced arguments regarding oppression and oppressed characters.
The conclusion of this project argues the significant necessity of
intersectionality theory, both in the writing and reading of literature. Ostensible
narratives of social justice risk contributing to systemic oppression when they do not
emphasize the harms of oppression in all its intersecting forms. By employing an
intersectional approach, this research distinguishes between diverse and progressive
texts that still maintain the status quo, and those that promote liberating, systemic
upheaval.
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