Growing Up/ Growing Sideways: Heteronormativity and the Queer Child

In this seminar, we will be exploring different ways and concepts of growing up, both theoretically and with regard to literary and cinematic representations from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) to Peter Cameron's Someday this Pain Will Be Useful to You (2007). As growth in a (hetero-) normative culture is generally defined as a directed movement toward deeply held values like marriage, parenthood, or a 'carreer', prevalent notions of growing up may turn out to be a stumbling block or even a hindrance to developing a healthy sense of self. In order to examine and deconstruct the ways by which (hetero-) normative culture construes the identity of the Child (in the name of the child), we will be analysing the representation of queer children – in the widest sense, i.e. from so-called problem children to protogay children.

Please read/ watch:

Billy Elliot. Dir. Stephen Daldry. Perf. Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Gary Lewis, Jamie Draven, and Adam Cooper. 2000. Universal, 2003. DVD.

Cameron, Peter. Someday this Pain Will Be Useful to You. New York: Picador, 2011.

Carroll, Lewis. Alice in Wonderland. Ed. Donald J. Gray. New York and London: Norton, 2013.

Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Alda. 2006. Twentieth Century Fox, 2013. DVD.