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- Title
Representations of Testimonial Smothering and Critical Witnessing of Rape Victim–Survivors in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak Fanfiction.
- Authors
Moore, Amber
- Abstract
This paper examines how young adult (YA) literature-inspired fanfiction can be a space where responses to victim-survivors of sexual violence and rape culture are creatively and critically explored. More specifically, employing a feminist critical discourse analysis, this project zeroes in on fanfiction from Fanfiction.net (FFN) and Archive of Our Own (AO3) that is inspired by the award winning, popular, and widely-taught YA trauma novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. It investigates how authors expand on and reimagine the ways in which the victim-survivor protagonist, Melinda, is treated by her family and friends in the aftermath of sexual trauma. This project represents a piece of a larger feminist qualitative study examining how storied resistances against rape culture are being enacted online through YA fanfiction that reimagines trauma experiences. A significant finding from the work discussed here is how across the Speak fandom, fanfiction authors largely add complexity, extending or revising the testimonial smothering that Melinda experiences in the original text or by enriching and (re)producing new experiences of critical witnessing. As such, this research offers enhanced understanding about how largely adolescent creators respond, reimagine, and even resist rape culture through creative literacy practices.
- Subjects
ANDERSON, Laurie Halse, 1961-; FAN fiction; YOUNG adult literature; RAPE culture; CRITICAL discourse analysis
- Publication
Children's Literature in Education, 2024, Vol 55, Issue 2, p162
- ISSN
0045-6713
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10583-022-09516-6