Social Responsibility and Young Adult Literature: Flattening Native Americanness with Marginalizing Tropes
Title and/or Affiliation
Assist. Dean of Instructional Design & General Education
Presenter Bio
Dr. Vandy Pacetti-Donelson is a veteran of K-12 education, a former Teacher of the Year, and now an Assistant Dean of Instructional Design & General Education at United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama. As a former English teacher, school librarian, and YA curator, Vandy is a passionate library advocate and speaker.
Session
Panel: Historical Perspectives
Location
Zoom
Start Date
8-7-2022 11:00 AM
End Date
8-7-2022 12:15 PM
Abstract
Young adult literature, as an emergent genre, has the powerful position to articulate ideas for an audience who are still defining who they are and what they believe. It is the representation of cultural differences of marginalized communities that determine how readers will view those cultures. We as readers largely view Native Americans as white history has defined them and as white authors of fiction have portrayed them. This paper locates young adult novels that have Seminole Indians as characters (My Name is Sally Little Song; The Talking Earth; Saving Home; and Escape to the Everglades) through the critical lens of Narratology within the larger discourse surrounding its implications for cultural constructions of race and identity to provide insight into poorly understood representations of Native Americans as a marginalized group.
Social Responsibility and Young Adult Literature: Flattening Native Americanness with Marginalizing Tropes
Zoom
Young adult literature, as an emergent genre, has the powerful position to articulate ideas for an audience who are still defining who they are and what they believe. It is the representation of cultural differences of marginalized communities that determine how readers will view those cultures. We as readers largely view Native Americans as white history has defined them and as white authors of fiction have portrayed them. This paper locates young adult novels that have Seminole Indians as characters (My Name is Sally Little Song; The Talking Earth; Saving Home; and Escape to the Everglades) through the critical lens of Narratology within the larger discourse surrounding its implications for cultural constructions of race and identity to provide insight into poorly understood representations of Native Americans as a marginalized group.
Comments
Moderated by Dhonielle Clayton