The Scorpio Races centers around the protagonist, Puck, who is forced to enter her island’s Scorpio Races to earn the money needed to pay to keep her family’s house. The island that she lives on, Thisby, holds the Scorpio Races every year, except it is an event only meant for males to take part in on the island’s dangerous water horses. Not only does Puck fight to be the first woman to compete in the races, but she decides to race on her own personal horse instead of one of the water horses.

A feminist reading of the text can be clearly applied given that Puck is a woman trying to establish herself in a traditionally male environment. However, a deeper application can be applied in looking closer at the details in the text. Tyson states that for men, “failure to provide adequate economic support for one’s family is considered the most humiliating failure a man can experience” (83). In The Scorpio Races, the whole reason that Puck enters the races is because her brother Gabe is unable to support the family through the various jobs that he has picked up around the island. Since their parents are deceased, not only is her brother unable to fill his role as provider for his siblings, but Puck has to step into a traditionally male role of breadmaker in order to provide financially for herself and her siblings since her brother is unable to.

Due to the traditionally established gender roles in the races and on Thisby though, Puck faces multiple challenges in achieving this role. Tyson states, “Our gender strongly influences how we are treated by others and by society as a whole” (103), and that one gender studies issue is the “patriarchal assumptions about gender and gender roles that continue to oppress women” (103). Throughout the story, Puck is repeatedly told and actively attempted to be removed by the men on the island from competing in the races. The only reasoning given is that “No woman’s ridden in the races since they began” and that “There are rules on paper and rules too big for paper” (Stiefvater 195). Combined with the overall lack of female characters in the text- the only other women are the butcher’s wife and three elderly sisters that hold a fairy-godmother like role in Puck’s life- the text itself is male dominated. And even the butcher’s wife has more masculine traits attributed to her.

By creating such a male dominated text for such a male dominated event, it really displays the oppression that Puck continually finds herself up against simply for being a woman. Puck ends up befriending and training with previous year’s winner of the races after having earned his respect. Throughout the race, he then remains by her side to help protect her from the other competitors, and she ends up winning the races. While her ability to win the races implies that patriarchal beliefs can be overcome, there is also the implication that this shift cannot occur without the help of powerful men. She is only able to win the race because she had training and protection throughout the process and the race itself from the previous year’s winner.

Interestingly enough, another feminist aspect of the text that could be further explored is the role of woman in island mythology compared to the current role of women on the island. The mare goddess that the island recognizes as part of the myth that contributes to the island’s ability to produce water horses is female and much of the ceremony surrounding the races is centered on honoring this goddess. However, the goddess’s role and perceived power is vastly different from the treatment that Puck receives as she tries to participate in the event.

Works Cited

Stiefvater, Maggie. The Scorpio Races. Scholastic Press, 2011.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, 2015.

I am still interested in looking at young adult literature that addresses topics that are often seen as taboo or censored. I am shifting my focus to look at the role of trauma in these texts and the function that this role has for readers of these texts. I would still like to use this focus to allow readers to better understand where the line between representation and activism falls in young adult literature.

X: Young adult literature that addresses topics that are often seen as taboo or censored.

Y: What is the role of trauma in these texts and what function does that role have for readers of censored young adult literature?

Z: There is a point at which representation in a text shifts to become activism.

I still think that a combination of reader-response theory and psychoanalytical theory will be most useful for my project. Using psychoanalytical theory, I can analyze the ways in which the characters in the text cope with their trauma. Making a distinction between the author as activist and the reader as being inspired to engage in activism, reader response theory could be beneficial in analyzing where a text falls between representation and activism. Specifically, I can use affective stylistics to further look at how the reader responds to how the text is written.

Another article that could be useful is Power in Our Words: Finding Community and Mitigating Trauma in James Dashner’s The Maze Runner by Amy Elliot.

Works Cited

Elliot, Amy. “Power in our Words: Finding Community and Mitigating Trauma in James Dashner’s the Maze Runner.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, vol. 40, no. 2, 2015, pp. 179-199. ProQuest, https://washcoll.idm.oclc.org/docview/1686768135?accountid=14892.

New historicists find that “the literary text and the historical situation from which it emerged are equally important” (Tyson 277), while cultural critics believe that  “a literary text… performs cultural work to the extent to which it shapes the cultural experience of those who encounter it, that is, to the extent to which it shapes our experience as members of a cultural group” (Tyson 282). In analyzing All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely with a new historicist and cultural lens, one finds strong historical and cultural connections to the time period in which the text was written and the history behind what led to the attitudes and actions being portrayed in the text.

All American Boys is about two high school students, Rashad and Quinn. Rashad is black and subjected to police brutality, while Quinn, who is white, not only witnesses this event, but also knows the cop brutally beating Rashad.  Since new historicists believe that “history is neither linear… nor progressive” (Tyson 275), new historicists would be interested in racial relations both in the time at which this text was written and whether there are any connections to race relations in society’s past. This novel was released in September 2015, and earlier in April 2015 the Baltimore protests over the treatment of Freddie Gray occurred. So there is definitely a significant relationship between the timing of the novel’s release and the current societal climate at the time. However, it is also important to look at the history of slavery and the historic treatment of blacks by white society to have a stronger understanding of the tensions surrounding racial relations in the novel and society. Since new historicists believe that history is not progressive, they would question how much of the tension between races that existed during slavery is now reappearing or has remained present to now have these moments of police brutality exist.

Tyson also states, “rather, literary texts are cultural artifacts that can tell us something about the interplay of discourses, the web of social meanings, operating in the time and place in which the text was written” (277). All American Boys is written from the perspective of both Rashad and Quinn in alternating chapters. Not only can critics analyze the time period in which this text was written, but they can directly read some of the discourse occurring around the top of race relations and police brutality, as it is directly addressed in the narratives from each of the boys. While Rashad’s chapters focus on giving his perspective of how trying to buy a bag of chips went wrong, Quinn’s chapters focus on Quinn grappling with how the situation led to police brutality and whether that was an appropriate reaction. Circling back to cultural critics belief that a literary text can “[shape] the cultural experience of those that encounter it” (Tyson 282), in offering these two perspectives from seemingly opposing sides, Reynolds and Kiely are hopefully able to then encourage new experiences and ways of thinking for those that encounter this text.

However, cultural critics belief in texts shaping experiences makes me question whether this is because the text reflects something currently occurring in society or if it’s the power of the words and the text itself that causes readers to think about their world and experiences in a new way. For example, while All American Boys does address police brutality in a way that I feel promotes thought, the most well-known novel in my eyes that addresses this topic is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. What led to one text being more prominent than the other? Since other factors such as the date published and author popularity contribute to the answer, perhaps this question goes beyond the scope of what cultural critics would be most interested in analyzing. I think cultural critics would be more interested in how the text has helped to shape each reader’s cultural experiences and look at how that is being done than to analyze how far reaching the text has become.

Works Cited

Reynolds, Jason, and Brendan Kiely. All American Boys. Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2015.

Thomas, Angie. The Hate U Give. Walker Books, 2018.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015

I am looking at young adult literature that addresses topics that are often seen as taboo or censored in order to analyze the depiction of these events that readers could potentially be facing in their own lives so that my readers can better understand where the line between representation and activism in young adult literature falls.

X: Young adult literature that addresses topics that are often seen as taboo or censored.

Y: How are these events that some of the readers could potentially be facing being depicted in these novels?

Z: There is a point at which representation in a text shifts to become activism.

I am considering specifically focusing on young adult novels that address school shootings. The two novels that I am considering using are Underwater by Marisa Reichardt and Finding Jake by Bryon Reardon.  A secondary source that could be useful is “Cinderella’s Stepsisters, Traumatic Memory, and Young People’s Writing” by Adrienne Kertzer, found using Washington College’s Library and Archives OneSearch.

I will be using a combination of reader-response theory and psychoanalytical theory. Using psychoanalytical theory, I can analyze the ways in which the characters in the text cope with their trauma. Making a distinction between the author as activist and the reader as being inspired to engage in activism, reader response theory could be beneficial in analyzing where a text falls between representation and activism. Specifically, I can use affective stylistics to further look at how the reader responds to how the text is written.

Works Cited

Kertzer, Adrienne. “Cinderella’s Stepsisters, Traumatic Memory , and Young People’s Writing.” Lion & the Unicorn, vol. 40, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 1–21. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1353/uni.2016.0004.

Reardon, Bryan. Finding Jake. Turtleback Books, 2015.

Reichardt, Marisa. Underwater. Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 2016.

In reader response theory, how involved is authorial intention? Authors write hoping their work will obtain a certain desired response (if a writer intends to craft a thriller than they would hope readers respond to it as a thriller and not as something else, like a comedy). Similarly, how heavily do reader response critics care about any disconnects between authorial intention and the reader’s response to the text?

In transactional reader response theory, the reader needs to use an aesthetic approach where “we experience a personal relationship to the text that focuses our attention on the emotional subtleties of its language and encourages us to make judgement” (Tyson 165). There is also a focus on indeterminate meanings, focused on “actions that are not clearly explained or that seem to have multiple explanations” (Tyson 166). Both of these approaches require closely analyzing language and what the author did and did not decide to incorporate into their text. It seems impossible to completely discount authorial intention when considering the response to a text.

Another method of reader response theory that appears to focus heavily on authorial intention is affective stylistics. In affective stylistics, “the text consists of the results it produces, and those results occur within the reader” (Tyson 167). This method appears to take the relationship between authorial intention and reader response that is developed in transactional theory one step further by taking a closer reading of the text’s structure.

Going back to my question about authorial intention in reader response theory, while authorial intention is important in crafting the story, it does not always perfectly translate to the reader’s response to that story. If we are meant to analyze the “emotional subtleties of its language” (Tyson 165), and the author crafted the text with the reader’s response in mind, then in a perfect world the reader’s response to the language should match the author’s intent for the text.

However, we are not living in a perfect world, and reader’s often respond to texts differently than authors intend. My primary focus of evaluation is on a section from a chapter in The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. In this novel, the protagonist, Ruby, has the ability to get inside other’s heads and control their actions. However, she does not know how to control this ability, so she seeks help from another character, Clancy, who contains a similar ability to control the minds and actions of others. In this specific section, Clancy uses his abilities on Ruby to force romantic thoughts and actions regarding the two of them into her mind. Afterwards, Ruby is unable to determine what, if anything, happened between the two of them.

Given that Ruby narrates the novel, and this is not the first time Clancy has revealed interest in her, many readers have responded to this section as a rape scene. This is not only a judgement call made by readers based on the language of the passage, but also based on the determinate and indeterminate meanings found in the text up until, and at that point.

In thinking of authorial intention and how well an author is able to carefully curate a reader’s response, in this particular section of the novel the two did not come together perfectly. In hearing of reader’s responding to this section of the text, Alexandra Bracken has expressed that it was not her intention at all for it to read like a rape scene. Though this was not Alexandra Bracken’s intention in writing this scene, it does not seem that reader response critics would care much about her intentions. Affective stylistics would be beneficial in establishing the vast amount of readers that responded to this section similarly. In contrary, I could see reader response theorists using transactional reader response theory to analyze the language of the text and the indeterminate and determinate meanings to determine where Alexandra Bracken went wrong, and how this reader response came about.

Works Cited:

Bracken, Alexandra. The Darkest Minds. Hyperion, an Imprint of Disney Book Group, 2013.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015

Structuralists strive to find the deep structure of a work. There seems to be a certain timelessness to many deep structures, such as the Cinderella narrative. Redone a million times in a million different ways, at its root, Cinderella will always consist of a girl with two evil stepsisters, a stepmom, a dead father, a helper (fairy godmother figure), and a male romantic interest. This is due to structuralists seeking “to understand, in a systematic way, the fundamental structures that underlie all human experience” (Tyson 198). Cinderella works hard her whole life and with a little guidance from others, eventually this hard work pays off and she is able to live happily. Society still holds these ideals in regard to working hard and being rewarded for this work. In class, we discussed that genre can be described as a form of structure, so I’m curious to delve deeper into the evolving structures regarding genre, specifically looking at how similar genres are across age categories.

Courtney Summer’s young adult thriller Sadie fulfills the deeper structures required of a thriller. It contains suspense and cliffhangers. The novel centers around the protagonist Sadie seeking justice for her sister Mattie’s death. However, in a form that I’ve never seen used before in a text, every other chapter is narrated by a radio personality in a podcast format. As part of the text itself, I think structuralists would take into consideration that the form of the text switches between being told from first person to being narrated like a podcast. However, I think the deep structures that structuralists look for would take this form to go one step deeper and use it to reveal how the text fits into the structural form of a thriller. Looking specifically at the age category Sadie is placed in, the text is marketed towards young adults because Sadie herself is a young adult. It also deals with more mature content, in part being that Sadie is actively seeking her sister’s murderer for revenge.

Megan Miranda’s All the Missing Girls is an adult thriller that also fulfills the required deeper structure of a thriller. Like Sadie, All the Missing Girls revolves around a dead girl. However, all of the characters are adults and the suspense is driven by them connecting points of the plot with seemingly unconnected and pivotal points of their childhood. Different from Sadie, a portion of All the Missing Girls is told reverse chronologically: from the past to the present. Just like with Sadie’s form though, structuralists would use this reverse chronology to go deeper into the text and look at how it contributes to making this text a thriller.

What is interesting between these two examples is that due to structuralist’s focusing purely on the underlying structures of a text, these two works can be vastly different in approach to content, form, and audience and yet still contain the same underlying structures that drive them to be thrillers. By removing the text to a certain level, we can see that young adults and adults are in essence reading the same content when they approach a thriller. In the example of these two books, it is suspense surrounding the protagonist in the exploration into the death of another character that is present in the text only in memories.

Works Cited

Miranda, Megan. All the Missing Girls. Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Summers, Courtney. Sadie. Wednesday Books, 2019.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today. 3rd ed., Routledge, 2015

After reading Critical Theory Today by Lois Tyson, I am intrigued by how new critics believed that the interpretive work they were doing could lead to one single best objective interpretation of a text. By only looking at the text itself, new critics believed the text “would itself dictate how it would be interpreted” (Tyson 142). However, there is no objective way to evaluate what constitutes “the best interpretation” of a text. Clearly the creators of new criticism were rejecting the idea that every reader brings to the text their own backgrounds and bias, while at the same time evaluating a text based on their perception of what is “best.” Did new critics genuinely not believe that context influences works or were they choosing to neglect this contextual influence?

By focusing solely on the text of a work without regard to any context, the new critic could easily be overlooking a major creative element of a text. If a major element of the text is being overlooked than how can they say that they have formed the best interpretation of the work? And if there were one single best interpretation of a text, then why is it necessary to argue for your interpretation? Wouldn’t everyone in the literary community agree with your view, as they have come to the same single interpretation that you have?

New critics have to evaluate which form of a word best fits with their perceived “best interpretation,” which means they have to be aware in some way, shape, or form that others can argue differently for the interpretation of the text. There are definite limitations to how objective their criticism becomes once they have to make these choices rooted in personal opinion of the text and its meaning. If there are multiple different definitions for the words, then how objective can new critics actually be in interpreting the text when they must only pick one definition as correct?

To new critics, “[a text’s] meaning is as objective as its physical existence on the page” (Tyson 131). However, in “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou, without context the text loses a lot of its importance. Through a new critic’s eye, “Caged Bird” is taken very literally to present the dichotomy between freedom and imprisonment. In Angelou’s poem the free bird “floats downstream” (3) and “names the sky his own” (26) because his normal bodily functions have not been hindered in any way. In opposition to the free bird, there is not only a cage around the imprisoned bird, but also “his wings are clipped and / his feet are tied” (Angelou 12-13). The voice of this bird is all that it has left to use in protest of its current and potentially never-ending conditions. The poem opens with the free bird and the freedom that the caged bird at the end of the poem is still singing and longing for.  

Though this interpretation is able to address important aspects of the poem, by removing the broader social and historical contexts of the poem from consideration into its meaning, the poem loses part of its significance. The fact that this poem was written by an African American poet during the Civil Rights Movement is important in knowing that the birds are symbols representing the white man and the enslaved African American. New critics are in part only able to scratch the surface of literary analysis of a text due primarily to the fact that context often and almost always plays an important role in the creation and meaning behind a text.

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya. “Caged Bird.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48989/caged-bird.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: a User-Friendly Guide. Routledge, 2015.