A Time, A Place, and A Person: A comparative literary analysis of Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston and how queer representation can be problematized in a classroom context

Here's the abstract:

This thesis provides a literary analysis of two queer young adult romance novels by the same author, Casey McQuiston. These novels are Red, White & Royal Blue, published in 2019 and One Last Stop published in 2021. The aim of the thesis was to investigate differences and similarities in representations of various queer relationships in queer YA romance literature, as well as comparing these queer YA romance novels to the norm. The final aim of the thesis has been to investigate what types of representation of queer people is present in Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop to provide in service teachers with tools to evaluate and be informed about representations. The theoretical frameworks for the thesis are queer theory and queer pedagogy. The analysis was conducted with these theoretical frameworks as a basis, along with the metaphors of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors for representation. The analysis found that there were no major differences between the queer YA romance novels and the heterosexual norm. One difference that was found was the struggles that the romantic partners faced being homophobia and stereotyping. The analysis also found that there were examples of both negative and positive representation in both novels. This thesis also contributed to the current field of queer theory by expanding on previous research on means of representation. This expansion lead to the proposal of a third means of representation when it comes to queer YA romance literature. Finally, the thesis found that these metaphors can provide in service teachers with tools and methods to problematize and evaluate representations of queer people in and outside the classroom.