Moments of excess: Type 1 diabetes and the myth of control in adolescent fiction for girls

<p>This thesis is the first academic work to analyze the stories of the Type 1 diabetic teen girls of adolescent fiction. In novels for adolescent readers, these girls are often White, female, heterosexual, and middle class—resulting in a collective disability narrative that portrays an “every girl” and lacks cultural or political dimensions. This thesis explores the narratives of five fictional teen protagonists with Type 1 diabetes. They are: Stacey McGill from the Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin, Rachel Deering in Lurlene McDaniel’s <em>Will I Ever Dance Again?</em> (1982), Mackenzie “Zie” Clark in Sarah White’s <em>Let Me List the Ways</em> (2018), Lucy Szabo in Pete Hautman’s <em>Sweetblood</em> (2003), and Virginia “Dare” Chase in Sarah Glenn Marsh’s <em>The Girls Are Never Gone</em> (2021). In these novels, diabetes is often made visible through moments of crisis—exemplifying what disability scholars David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder (2000) refer to as “disability as a material metaphor,” and ultimately furthering what American author Jeffery Bennett (2019) refers to as diabetes’ “crisis of signification.”</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English Language and Literature

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• LeGault, Michelle E.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Amanda K. Allen, Ph.D.
• Annette Wannamaker, Ph.D.

• adolescent
• chronic illness
• diabetes
• disability
• girlhood
• identity
• Disability Studies
• English Language and Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/1189

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-2560