Cultural Power and Utopianism in Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom and M.T. Anderson's Feed

<p>Author's abstract: Resourcefully and responsibly obtaining a sense of power is central to quality young adult literature. Laurie Halse Anderson's Prom and M.T. Anderson's Feed show their adolescent protagonists' struggles with identity formation, consumerism, and the adult world. In order to address power relationships, the two novels address the rise of a global electronic and print media system that collapses traditional notions of time and space and the excessive consumption associated with the culture such a system creates. However, these two novels explore postmodern consumer culture from different perspectives. Prom functions as a utopian, revisionist fairy tale in which the consequences of rampant consumerism are combated through individual agency and sustained community involvement, whereas Feed acts as an apocalyptic dystopia in which any quest for agency is thwarted by the rampant consumerism connected to the rise of a transnational, info-age economy. The extent to which these two novels fit within the theoretical framework of utopian/dystopian fiction illuminates their disparate approaches to the power struggles associated with the culture industry.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in English (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Literature and Philosophy

Year dc:date.available

2009

Author dc:creator

• Dinatale, Leah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Caren Town
• Joe Pellegrino

• ETD
• Young adult literature
• utopias
• dystopias
• Laurie Halse Anderson
• MT Anderson
• Arts and Humanities
• Comparative Literature
• English Language and Literature
• Other English Language and Literature

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/1031

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-2064