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"Marginality, Social Fiction."
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“Write the story you want to read”: world-queering through slash fanfiction creation
PurposeThis pilot study explores how queer slash fanfiction writers reorient cis/heteronormative entertainment media (EM) content to create queer information worlds.Design/methodology/approachConstructivist grounded theory was employed to explore queer individuals' slash fanfiction reading and creation practices. Slash fanfiction refers to fan-written texts that recast cis/heteronormative content with queer characters, relationships, and themes. Theoretical sampling drove ten semi-structured interviews with queer slash writers and content analysis of both Captain America slash and material features found on two online fanfiction platforms, Archive of Our Own and fanfiction.net. “Queer” serves as a theoretical lens through which to explore non-cis/heteronormative perspectives on gender and sexuality.FindingsParticipants' interactions with and creation of slash fanfiction constitute world-queering practices wherein individuals reorient cis/heteronormative content, design systems, and form community while developing their identities over time. Findings suggest ways that queer creators respond to, challenge, and reorient cis/heteronormative narratives perpetuated by EM and other information sources, as well as ways their practices are constrained by structural power dynamics.Research limitations/implicationsThis initial data collection only begins to explore the topic with ten interviews. The participant sample lacks racial diversity while the content sample focuses on one fandom. However, results suggest future directions for theoretical sampling that will continue to advance constructs developed from the data.Originality/valueThis research contributes to evolving perspectives on information creation and queer individuals' information practices. In particular, findings expand theoretical frameworks related to small worlds and ways in which members of marginalized populations grapple with exclusionary normativity.
Journal Article
Brodeck : a novel
When a stranger with unusual manners is murdered for his unflattering and insightful illustrations, a government report writer and concentration camp survivor writes an official, whitewashed account of the incident while secretly penning the truth in a parallel narrative.
Book
Using Speculative Fiction to Imagine Queer Abolition Real Utopias
This article uses speculative fiction as a method for exploring the potentialities of queer abolition utopias. Abolition utopias aim to strike a balance of hope and need, offering innovative alternatives to prison while also addressing the current penal and social realities of marginalised groups. Queer abolition utopias, informed by the literature in queer criminology, centres the experiences of LGBTQ + people in these innovative alternatives. This article presents 3 pieces of short speculative fiction (1) Finding Harmony House, (2) Glasgow East Community Forum, (3) Our Long weekend at Leuchars Lodge. All 3 stories centre an LGBTQ + character(s) who are facing a particular challenge or challenges in their life, and how said alternatives might play a role in their moving forward.
Journal Article
The house on Harbor Hill
\"Tracey won't say where she's from or what sent her into hiding. But her determination and refusal to give up reminds Delilah of the spirited, hopeful girl she once was--and the dreams she still cherishes. As Tracey takes tentative steps to rebuild her life, her unexpected attraction to Delilah's handsome, troubled caretaker inadvertently brings Delilah face to face with the past. And when Tracey's worst fears come brutally calling, both women must find even more strength to confront truths they can no longer ignore--and at last learn how to truly be free... Resonant, moving, and unforgettable, The House on Harbor Hill paints an unforgettable portrait of two women struggling to forgive themselves, take a chance on change, and challenge each other to finally live.\"--ONIX annotation.
Book
Homophobic and Transphobic Bullying: Impacts on the Mental and Physical Health of Queer Black Adolescents in Kacen Callender's Young Adult Fiction
This paper examines how homophobic bullying profoundly impacts the mental and physical health of Black queer children, with a particular focus on the rising suicide rate within this marginalized community. Analysing the representation of homophobic and transphobic bullying in Kacen Callender's young adult fiction, this study explores the devastating impact of both verbal and nonverbal forms of abuse, including rejection, intimidation, and social isolation. These negative experiences contribute to long-term emotional distress, leading to an increased vulnerability to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. Meyer's minority stress theory is used to examine how systematic ignorance and rejection of queerness render Black queer children more vulnerable, resulting in insecurity, psychological anguish, and marginalization. This analysis underscores the importance of positive interactions with peers and a safe environment to lessen the damage of bullying. Studies show that having inclusive spaces in schools, communities, or families can foster resilience and higher self-esteem in Black queer adolescents. Supportive networks offer validation, emotional safety, and a sense of belonging, helping to mitigate the impact of discrimination. Based on these findings, this paper highlights a need for comprehensive antibullying policies and implementation, increased education and awareness campaigns, and an inclusive education system that embraces diversity. By prioritizing these actions, societies can create equitable opportunities for well-being and development, ensuring that all children, regardless of their racial, gender, or sexual identity, have the right to grow up in a world free from fear and discrimination.
Journal Article
Performing the Self: A Bakhtinian Carnivalistic Reading of Amita Parikh's The Circus Train
This study employs Mikhail Bakhtin's theory on \"Carnival\", to interpret Amita Parikh's novel The Circus Train (2022) as part of the broader framework of historical fiction that examines themes related to identity, belonging and psychological resilience against the backdrop of World War II. It addresses a gap in previous research by being the first to utilize a carnivalistic approach to the analysis of The Circus Train, demonstrating how Bakhtin's theory on Carnival is applicable to identity-construction processes and self-discovery within the context of chaotic, liminal spaces beyond the medieval celebrations Bakhtin made reference to. The methodology used in this study consists of a qualitative approach to literature, combining Bakhtin's carnival model with a close textual analysis in order to understand the relationship between the grotesque realism within literature and social hierarchies and the transformation of individuals. This study indicated three findings: 1. The novel critiques established power relationships of the time, allowing for the marginalized characters to re-negotiate their identities and reclaim their agency; 2. The use of grotesque imagery enhances our understanding of the themes surrounding adaptation and survival and gives us insight into how humans made sense of the world in a time of crisis; 3. The \"Carnival\" becomes a transformative strategy of individuals fostering resilience, liberation and self-definition in the face of destruction. By integrating Bakhtinian theory with contemporary literary discourse, this study offers a deeper understanding of how narrative spaces nurture emotional development and identity formation in historically disrupted contexts. It further recommends extending carnivalistic frameworks to the analysis of literature concerned with war, displacement, and belonging, as such approaches uncover hidden dimensions of human agency, trauma, and renewal, positioning The Circus Train as a pivotal contribution to modern studies of identity and transformation.
Journal Article
A novel of de-formation: Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God as a postmodern Gothic parody of the Bildungsroman
Cormac McCarthy’s fiction has been widely acclaimed for its unstinting exploration of the subterranean recesses of human subjectivity and its inarticulate horrors. His third novel, Child of God (1973), achieves the foregoing by tapping into Gothic and postmodern features, both of which demonstrate a corresponding concern with human subjectivity. As a literary tradition intimately intertwined with the teleological discourse of humanism, the Bildungsroman or the novel of formation can provide an optimal point of departure for participation in the contemporary debate on human subjectivity. Despite the distinct imbrication between Child of God and the Bildungsroman, a systematic study of its significance vis-à-vis the novel’s stance on human subjectivity in postmodern times has not been conducted. Accordingly, the present study stakes out a new terrain in postmodern Gothic studies by establishing a line of communication between the Gothic, postmodernism, and the tradition of the Bildungsroman based on their relationship with the discourse of humanism. The interplay reconfigures the significance of Gothic horror in the postmodern world. In particular, the current paper argues that Child of God is a postmodern parody—in accordance with Linda Hutcheon’s definition—of the Bildungsroman, which draws on subversive Gothic elements in order to make a polemic statement about the status of Man in the postmodern world. It will be demonstrated that the novel reiterates the elements of the Bildungsroman with ironic critical distance, portraying the horrid dissolution of humanist subjectivity rather than its teleological progress toward positive identity formation and social integration. It will be indicated, however, that although the protagonist edges toward posthuman monstrosity in such a way as to limn the failure of the Bildungsroman and its humanist tradition, the posthuman liminality and marginality ensuing from this disintegration are not celebrated in the novel, as its Gothicity serves to voice the consequent horrors of this dissolution.
Journal Article
The Marginalization of the Palestinian in Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock: A Postcolonial Study
This paper approaches Philip Roth’s semi-autobiographical novel Operation Shylock (1993), an appropriation of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, from a postcolonial angle attempting to find an answer to Spivak’s question: Can the Subaltern Speak? It focuses on how Philip Roth silences the Palestinian “Other” in his narrative telling the story of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict from a Zionist perspective. More interestingly, the study explains how Israelis interpret the reasons behind their victimization of the Palestinian using the argument that they were already victims of the Holocaust and a long traumatic past struggling to maintain social self-esteem and a tolerant acceptance in the world. Furthermore, it exposes the ways Philip Roth depicted the state of mind of Jewish characters in the novel and the effect of war trauma on their treatment of the “Other”. Then, the study provides a critical reading of how Philip Roth legitimizes the victimization of the Palestinian neglecting his existence using Edward Said’s Orientalism.
Journal Article