In-Group, Out-Group, or All of the Above: The Advantages of Young Adult Literature for Empathic and Cognitive Engagement with Minority Protagonists

Using the lens of cognitive poetics, this theoretical thesis examines how a majority or mainstream culture adolescent reader would use empathy with young adult novels featuring minority protagonists – that is, protagonists who are disabled, who are LGBT+, or who are of a minority race or ethnicity. In particular, this thesis focuses on the psychology theory of in-group and out-group categorizations, which demonstrates that we use more empathy with those we consider to be “like us” (in-group) and less empathy with those we consider to be “unlike us” (out-group). Because we are less likely to use empathy with out-group members, a majority culture reader is less likely to engage empathy with a text with a minority protagonist. This thesis argues that adolescence functions as a meaningful group categorization in young adult literature, and that it provides an in-group affiliation between the protagonist of a YA novel and an adolescent reader. It then further argues that this phenomenon changes how an adolescent reader would engage empathy with young adult novels featuring minority protagonists. The thesis investigates how this change occurs by examining in detail intersecting group categorizations in recent mimetic young adult novels with disabled, LGBT+, and/or minority racial protagonists, and by considering the relationship these categorizations create between the reader and the protagonist. It also examines patterns of how these novels encourage or discourage empathic engagement, and the effect of group categorizations upon this empathic engagement. The thesis concludes that because adolescence is able to function as an in-group in young adult literature, YA literature offers a specific advantage for adolescent readers, in that it has the potential to allow them to use more empathy with out-group members than they otherwise would be able to. Because empathic engagement with fiction also develops empathic abilities in the real world, YA literature also has a specific potential for developing out-group empathic abilities in majority culture adolescent readers, affecting their perceptions and actions outside of their reading experiences.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Savoie, Anna Duffie

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nikolajeva, Maria

• Cognitive poetics
• Cognitive criticism
• young adult literature
• minority literature
• diverse literature
• minority protagonists
• disability
• lgbt
• racial diversity
• empathy
• theory of mind
• empathic engagement
• in-group
• out-group
• diverse children's literature
• cognitive

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/63925613-fc31-4684-bcb2-dd7e5b21d2f2/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.50379

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/303297