Danielle Jago - Research Proposal

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Essential Question: How is sexual assault portrayed in young adult literature? 
  • ·       Is sexual assault portrayed in adolescent literature in-depth?
  • ·       Are the experiences of sexual assault survivors portrayed in young adult literature?
  • ·       Is rape culture portrayed accurately in young adult literature?
  • ·       Are the assumptions and attitudes of rape culture critiqued or reinforced in young adult literature?
  • ·       What messages are being communicated to young readers about sexual assault as a result of the portrayals within young adult literature?


For this research paper, I have decided to research the portrayal of rape culture in young adult literature. This is a topic that is very close to my own experiences as a woman, and I have seen instances of it and its effects in my own life, television, movies, books, etc. Rape culture regards attitudes concerning sexual assault and attempts to make it seem as though the victims of rape are somehow responsible for being assaulted.
            The books I plan on referencing in my paper include Go Ask Alice, Crank, Caramelo, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Each of these novels either involves a rape scene or involves a problematic discussion of sex, so I think they will fit well in with the research.
            Finding scholarly sources that address the portrayal of rape culture and sexual assault in young adult literature has been difficult, but I found some resources that focus on how violence is portrayed in young adult literature, as well as how social justice issues are portrayed in young adult literature and the politicization of young adult literature. I also found two reports, one that analyzes the frequency and likelihood of date rape (however, true numbers are skewed because of underreporting) and one report analyzing opposite-sex partner violence in terms of the physical and psychological effects on the victims.
            At this point, I am not exactly sure, but I think my argument is going to be that adolescent literature challenges rape culture by showing in instances of rape that the victim is not to blame. Mind you, that is a pretty rough statement of my argument. It definitely needs refining.
            I see a couple of challenges with my research, one being time. I have several pretty substantial projects going on right now, so this is kind of stressing me out. Also, I mentioned previously that there isn’t a ton of research related to this topic, so it has been a challenge just finding research.


Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 17, 2016 at 6:57 PM

    I love this topic because I feel like we have encountered sexual alot in these book and a lot of the time they were unnoticed by the other characters and glossed over. I think as a society we talk about rape culture a lot and there has been a lot of hype lately about rape culture. Being able to take a literary look at it and see how much the characters are blamed will be great for the audience!

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