- Title
- "Beneath and within and between it all": the construction of adolescent female subjectivity in young adult dystopian fiction
- Creator
- Kennedy, Nicole Victoria
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- This thesis examines the representations of and relationships between the female adolescent body and the dystopian and post-apocalyptic landscapes in three young adult dystopian trilogies: The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld, and The Tribe, by Ambelin Kwaymullina. These three narratives engage with notions of posthumanism, ecofeminism, and Indigenous futurism and postcolonialism to explore what it means to be human in posthuman and non-human worlds. These narratives also share many of the same themes and generic features, such as an historical environmental disaster that the human society has had to recover from; an oppressive government regime; and an ‘us-and-them’ divide of its citizens. The dominant society of the worlds of these texts manipulate and force the adolescent female bodies into sites of docility and repression, as in these texts the restriction and control of the body, mind, and spirit by the dystopian authoritarian figures are intertwined, as the mind, body, and spirit are likewise intertwined. My research has been guided by a desire to offer a reading of The Hunger Games, Uglies, and The Tribe that explores how female adolescent subjectivity can be constructed away from such repressive dichotomies as nature/culture, child/adult, and male/female — dichotomies that within a Western humanist tradition categorise and validate certain ways of being while invalidating others. To do this, I analyse the representations of the relationships between the female adolescent body and the non-human landscapes in and on which they live, and the role that the physical landscape plays in the development of identity. The post-apocalyptic and dystopian social and geographical spaces constructed in The Hunger Games, Uglies, and The Tribe reflect on and critique the current real-world ecological, political, and social and cultural concerns, while simultaneously presenting to readers potential futures. My analysis of these texts demonstrates that a sense of space and place, defined by landscape, is integral for developing identity. As well, I explore the role that the physical landscape plays in the construction of family and community relationships, and what implications these relationships have for the development of identity. I examine notions of parenthood, specifically motherhood and the role of the mother, and how the disconnection from one’s biological family, though traumatic, can engender positive transformations and the rebuilding of new family and community connections. The trauma visited on the landscapes is likewise visited on individuals and their community and family relationships, and thus the healing from trauma and the rebuilding of these connections are intertwined. This thesis presents an examination of the construction of female adolescent subjectivity in The Hunger Games, Uglies, and The Tribe that reveals the connection of the mind, body, and spirit with landscape and how individual female agency is encouraged because of these interconnections.
- Subject
- YA fiction; YA dystopia; trauma; landscape; ecofeminism; posthumanism; Indigenous futurism; spirituality; adolescence; subjectivity; dystopia; female; identity; motherhood; Indigenous; community
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1421621
- Identifier
- uon:37751
- Rights
- Copyright 2021 Nicole Victoria Kennedy
- Language
- eng
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 991 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 256 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |