From Romance to Magical Realism: Limits and Possibilities in Gay Adolescent Fiction

Author
Publication year
2009
Journal
Children’s Literature in Education
Volume
40.4
Pages
333–348
Comment

From the abstract:

While some authors use homophobia as the foil against which queer characters struggle in order to find happiness as a couple, others work to suspend ‘‘reality’’ by imagining away homophobia—showing queer characters building relationships in an environment relatively free of discrimination. Despite their differences, I argue that both methods ultimately reinscribe heteronormativity through the assumption that monogamous coupling is the goal of LGBTQ youth.