Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2006. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 27, 2007. Dissertation Committee: C. Anita Tarr (chair), Roberta Seelinger Trites, Jan Christopher Susina. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-208) and abstract. Also available in print.

Spanning the period from the early years of the Cold War to the early twenty-first century, Crossing Out argues that medical theories of gender variance which emerge in the middle of the twentieth century are bound by the Cold-War–era discursive limits within which they were articulated, and that the ideological content of those theories persists into late-century research and treatment protocols. I parallel these analyses with interrogations of literary representations of transgendered subjects. What emerges most powerfully from this analysis of literary works is their tendency to signify in excess of the medical foreclosures, even when they seem consistent with medical discourse. By reading these two discursive systems against each other, the dissertation demonstrates the ability of literary discourse to accommodate multifaceted subject positions which medical discourse is unable to articulate. Literature thus complicates the stories that medical culture tells, revealing complex and multivariate possibilities for transgendered identification absent from traditional medical accounts. In tracing these discursive intersections the dissertation draws on and extends Michel Foucault’s theory of subjugated knowledges and Judith Butler’s writings on the formation of gendered subjects. Chapter One establishes the Cold War context, and argues that there are significant continuities between 1950s theories of intersexuality and Cold War ideology. Chapter Two extends this analysis to take in theories of transsexualism that emerged in the same years, and analyzes the discursive excesses of a 1950s pulp novel representation of a transsexual. Chapter Three establishes that the ideological content of the medical theories remained virtually unchanged by the 1990s, and argues that multivalent literary representations of transgenderism from the same decade promise the emergence of unanticipated forms of gender identity that exceed medical norms. Chapter Four is concerned with transgendered children, as they are represented in medical writing and in young adult and children’s literature. Interrogating fiction which negotiates between established medical discourse and an emergent transgender discourse, the chapter argues that these works at once invite and subvert a pathologizing understanding of gender-variant children while simultaneously providing data that demands to be read through the lens of an emergent affirmative notion of trans-childhood.

Spanning the period from the early years of the Cold War to the early twenty-first century, Crossing Out argues that medical theories of gender variance which emerge in the middle of the twentieth century are bound by the Cold-War–era discursive limits within which they were articulated, and that the ideological content of those theories persists into late-century research and treatment protocols. I parallel these analyses with interrogations of literary representations of transgendered subjects. What emerges most powerfully from this analysis of literary works is their tendency to signify in excess of the medical foreclosures, even when they seem consistent with medical discourse. By reading these two discursive systems against each other, the dissertation demonstrates the ability of literary discourse to accommodate multifaceted subject positions which medical discourse is unable to articulate. Literature thus complicates the stories that medical culture tells, revealing complex and multivariate possibilities for transgendered identification absent from traditional medical accounts. In tracing these discursive intersections the dissertation draws on and extends Michel Foucault’s theory of subjugated knowledges and Judith Butler’s writings on the formation of gendered subjects. Chapter One establishes the Cold War context, and argues that there are significant continuities between 1950s theories of intersexuality and Cold War ideology. Chapter Two extends this analysis to take in theories of transsexualism that emerged in the same years, and analyzes the discursive excesses of a 1950s pulp novel representation of a transsexual. Chapter Three establishes that the ideological content of the medical theories remained virtually unchanged by the 1990s, and argues that multivalent literary representations of transgenderism from the same decade promise the emergence of unanticipated forms of gender identity that exceed medical norms. Chapter Four is concerned with transgendered children, as they are represented in medical writing and in young adult and children’s literature. Interrogating fiction which negotiates between established medical discourse and an emergent transgender discourse, the chapter argues that these works at once invite and subvert a pathologizing understanding of gender-variant children while simultaneously providing data that demands to be read through the lens of an emergent affirmative notion of trans-childhood.

Exploring Urban Spaces in the Young Imagination makes the case for taking seriously children's and young adult fiction as a topic worthy of scholarly analysis beyond a purely didactic focus. The recent explosion of interest in this literature among adult readers and the blurring of boundaries between adult and youth media demonstrate that it has become a powerful influence on popular culture and has captured the collective imagination. As the future inhabitants of urban spaces, paying close attention to children’s and youth perspectives can provide fresh lenses, with which to view the cultural construction of cityscapes. This dissertation examines post-millennium children’s and YA fiction and film. Drawing on theories of the spatial turn, my research provides five case studies on a variety of topics related to the contemporary metropolis – ranging from cognitive disability to environmental concerns. Specifically, it pays close attention to the inherent connections between the developing perceptions of metropolises and the various protagonists’ processes of identity formation. Beginning with Berlin, as portrayed in Andreas Steinhöfel’s popular Rico-und-Oskar-trilogy, my analysis explores the protagonist’s shifting perceptions of his urban surroundings while overcoming the limitations of his learning disability. Furthermore, my research shows how Steinhöfel’s Der mechanische Prinz utilizes the cityscape as a mirror for the protagonist’s psyche and how his knowledge of the Berlin subway system contributes to his self-healing. In contrast, China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun explores the ecocritical implications of London’s urban ‘other’, UnLondon. Katherine Marsh’s The Night Tourist and its sequel The Twilight Tourist illustrate the literary construction of New York City as a ‘mediascape’ and modern myth. Finally, I focus on alternative family structures and their connection to urban spaces, specifically Venice in Cornelia Funke’s Herr der Diebe, and Paris in Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The study concludes with an examination of these novels’ filmic versions and their respective romanticisations of Venice and Paris. The dissertation contributes to the fields of child and youth studies and urban geographies by exposing the manifold symbiotic constructions of cityscapes and youth in post-2000 children’s and YA fiction that shape identities and spaces alike. / Thesis (Ph.D, German) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-02 16:56:36.507

The focus of this thesis is how fanfiction, an underground subculture of web literature written about popular books, films, television shows, and comics, treats the original works it derives from. In this study I will examine the ways in which fans reshape the original stories of the works they write about, and the ways in which they do not, and speculate the reasons they have chosen to do so. This project examines fanfiction surrounding three young adult novels: Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Harry Potter. I examine each of these works and their respective fanfiction in order to highlight important themes in each work and problems inherent in each story to account for the changes fanfiction writers make in their literature. I have chosen one overarching theme in the fanfiction in each fandom and will explore why fanfiction authors have overwhelmingly chosen to change the source material to suit that theme.

Literature for young adults, which has undergone significant changes in the last few decades and continues to evolve rapidly, is increasingly accompanied by Internet materials which attempt to fulfill a variety of purposes. The overall purpose of this qualitative study was to develop an understanding of middle years teachers’ and students’ responses to these printed and online texts. This research explored the nature of the online content being created and the usefulness of Genette’s (1997) concepts of paratexts in understanding these materials, as well as the responses of middle years teachers and students to a selected set of novels and the online content related to those novels. A collective case study approach was used to probe the responses of four teachers and six students from four mid-sized western Canadian cities. Data were collected through in-person and Skype interviews and through written response journals. Within-case and cross-case analysis occurred using thematic coding methods. Themes were identified in both the students’ and teachers’ responses, and these themes were observed to align in six significant ways. Both teachers and students agreed that audio and visual materials online may evoke a strong response and that the opinions and ideas of other readers are interesting and influential. The teachers predicted and the students confirmed that their response to the websites was largely determined by their response to the printed texts. The two participant groups both indicated that they viewed the printed texts as of primary importance and that the content of the websites had the power to change their thinking about those texts. Finally, both teachers and students described a tendency to make quick decisions about their interest in the content of a website. Implications for pedagogy include the need for educators to investigate these online materials and to consider students’ out-of-school literacy skills and preferences in order to make intentional, informed decisions about their use in the curriculum. Recommendations for future research include the exploration of a wider range of printed and online texts, examination of the responses of students from different age groups to these texts, and investigation of the impact of participation in the book-related websites on adolescents’ identity development. / Graduate / 0727

Thesis (M.A.)--Bowling Green State University, 2008. / Document formatted into pages; contains v, 76 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 58-59)

Thesis (M.A.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of English, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-65).