Female Rebels and Role Models: The Construction of Gender Identity in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
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2018-06-15
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en
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This thesis examines the portrayal of the gender identity of female protagonists in four young adult dystopian trilogies, namely Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Divergent by Veronica Roth, and Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi. A lens of feminist and gender theory is employed in this analysis, which focuses on the characters’ internal construction of gender identity as well as the construction of their gender identity as a result of social relations and societal power structures. This thesis argues that the protagonists are forced to not only rapidly construct their identities as they are subjugated by oppressive forces, they also have to learn how to present and perform their identity in different circumstances. Gender thus affects the way in which the female protagonists are conditioned to act not only as individuals but in their interactions with others, interactions which are subject to external oppressions. These external oppressions are based in socially and culturally determined gender roles that instruct adolescent women on how to act according to their gender.
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