Dominating discourses, imposing ideologies : embodiment and femininity in a Canadian young adult literature trilogy

Abstract

This thesis project identifies and analyzes a series of intersecting dominant social discourses of contemporary girlhoods in Susan Juby’s Canadian Young Adult Literature (YAL) trilogy titled Alice, I Think. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is employed to illustrate the ways in which the protagonist is depicted as constructing her subjectivity through such discourses and the often oppressive ideologies they reinforce. Focusing in particular on femininity as it has been defined and theorized by feminist post-structuralism, the thesis project shows how the protagonist comes to embody those discourses through which she is constructed and constructs her sense of self. The concept of embodiment is central to this project insofar as it is used as a means to investigate this often contradictory and complex relationship between discourse and bodily-determined and inscribed identity. This thesis project also attempts to demystify and challenge the ideological messages that are reinforced and normalized through discourse within the trilogy. It argues that while the Alice, I Think trilogy purposefully calls attention to and acknowledges the oppressive and gendered ideas that these discourses construct and promote, it does not challenge in any meaningful sense the ways in which they privilege some girls and exclude others.