Here's a footnote explaining the publication/production history of the essay:
This essay is a collaborative work of the authors named here and is the result of the seminar “A New Queer Romanticism? LGBTQIA* Novels for YA Audiences” in the MA programme “Comparative Studies in English and American Language, Literature, and Culture” (summer term 2024) at Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Germany, mentored by Dr. Michael Heinze. Special thanks is due to the editorial team who invested extra hours and a lot of effort in getting this final version of the essay together: Michael-Zane Brose, Lara Dengs, Elena John, Mira Kalcker, Alice Kronenberg, Antonia Steven, Julie Bøglund Strand.
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Here's the first paragraph:
When entering a bookstore, one doesn’t have to look far to find the designated tables and bookshelves laden with colorfully bright books labeled as Queer YA and #booktok recommendations. This phenomenon has become increasingly widespread over the last few years as the genre of Queer YA and particularly Queer YA Romance has gained in popularity, growing a community of dedicated readers, on- and offline. This reading community overlaps and merges with queer communities: “I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of community. Or communities, plural,” writes Becky Albertalli in the acknowledgments of her latest Queer YA Romance novel Imogen, Obviously. For her, “the word holds a good deal of messy complexity” (Albertalli, Ackn.) – a complexity often overlooked in the genre itself by critics who tend to dismiss flamboyant covers and stories written for young, teenage hearts. Likewise, even the most dedicated of readers often focus their attention on the romantic relationships portrayed rather than on the aspects of community represented in the novels. Romance plots often cannot be completed without a queer community the protagonists can refer and relate to, which is why the tropes employed in these novels tend to tie in the romantic relationship with a larger thematic exploration of identity and self-discovery.
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In order to discuss a broad spectrum of LGBTQIA+ representations, this paper focuses on three examples, covering different queer identity discourses: Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli as a story showcasing bisexuality and a romantic relationship between two women, Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender as a trans* narrative with a transmasculine protagonist in queer relationships, and Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston as a relationship between a gay and a bisexual man. In a close reading of these examples, this paper will ask a number of questions, first of these being about the purpose romance serves in those stories. Is it necessary for the self-discovery and self-identification of the protagonists to become romantically and/or sexually involved? Which romantic tropes also known from non-queer romance narratives help convey the queer romance and which ones are subverted to queer the narrative?
A factor of utmost importance for narratives of, by, and for queer people, is the element of community. How is community constructed in Queer YA Romance novels? What role does it play for narrative development and for the characters’ coming-of-age? (2)
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Ironically, by assuming that every unlabeled or straight-passing individual is allocishet, Gretchen only underlines the straight-by-default misconception and pushes potentially questioning characters out of the supposedly safe space created with the aim of exploring identities free from judgment and discrimination. In this, she functions as a mouthpiece for common online discourses demanding people operating in queer spaces, especially those in the public eye, to disclose their identities or else be accused of queerbaiting (see above). “Labels have meanings,” she tells Imogen after her coming out, “it’s how we’re able to talk about shared experiences […]. That’s like the whole foundation of the queer community” (395). The Queer Community, as a universal experience of queerness, however, is a myth (cf. Keller 266). Indeed, the core principle of queerness is to deconstruct norms instead of upholding them, and thus it always “emphasizes its own multiplicity and fragmentary nature” (Kiesling 47).
The multiplicity of queer experiences and communities is established in the novel when other queer characters actively challenge Gretchen’s devotion to membership criteria. (7)
Here's a footnote explaining the publication/production history of the essay:
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Here's the first paragraph:
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