Monstrous Youth: Transgressing the Boundaries of Childhood in the United States

by Sara Austin

Overview

Winner, 2024 Children’s Literature Association Book Award The monstrous has a long, complicated history within children’s popular media. In Monstrous Youth: Transgressing the Boundaries of Childhood in the United States, Sara Austin traces the evolution of monstrosity as it relates to youth culture from the 1950s to the present day to spotlight the symbiotic relationship between monstrosity and the bodies and identities of children and adolescents. Examining comics, films, picture books, novels, television, toys and other material culture—including Monsters, Inc. and works by Mercer Mayer, Maurice Sendak, R. L. Stine, and Stephanie Meyer—Austin tracks how the metaphor of monstrosity excludes, engulfs, and narrates difference within children’s culture. Analyzing how cultural shifts have drastically changed our perceptions of both what it means to be a monster and what it means to be a child, Austin charts how the portrayal and consumption of monsters corresponds to changes in identity categories such as race, sexuality, gender, disability, and class. In demonstrating how monstrosity is leveraged in service of political and cultural movements, such as integration, abstinence-only education, and queer rights, Austin offers insight into how monster texts continue to reflect, interpret, and shape the social discourses of identity within children’s culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814282113
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Publication date:	05/19/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	194
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Sara Austin teaches in the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies at Miami University. Her articles have appeared in International Research in Children’s Literature, The Lion and the Unicorn, and Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics, among other journals.

Read an Excerpt

Monstrous Youth tracks cultural cycles and changes in the representation of monsters in American texts from 1950 until the present, dividing the work chronologically. I argue that direct marketing of monstrosity to teens as a potential identity began in the 1950s with comic books and drive-in horror films, and continues to evolve within American children’s culture. Since teenagers are visibly similar to adults, teens of the 1950s were the first group to use monsters as a point of identification to gain agency. In time, younger children gained access to the same cultural models. Legal writings in the US use the term infant to mean any person under the age of legal majority, which may be eighteen or twenty-one depending on circumstances (“Infant”). Though our cultural and educational conceptions divide young people into subgroups including infants, toddlers, children, and teens, these categories are constantly evolving while the flattening legal definition remains constant. Since all young people are subjected to this same limitation on their legal rights, the archive for this project includes materials for young adults such as novels, comics, film, television, and fan productions such as zines, as well as material for younger children including picture books, easy readers, and toys. The specific case studies in each chapter represent examples from each of these groups. While each text builds on previous representations, the primary focus and medium of monster fiction shifts over time. I follow this chronological progression while discussing the major thematic moves within monster fiction in each decade. Following the development of monsters in children’s culture over time reveals patterns in both the types of bodies adults label as monstrous, and in how children and teens respond to these associations. Specifically, this chronological progression maps how child identification with the monster expands the boundaries of childhood, pushing the label of monstrous farther from adult control. While monstrous behavior initially meant “delinquent” or criminal conduct, the label shifts as social concerns move to include markers of race, class, reproductive sexuality, and queerness. In each case, child identification with the monster requires a cultural shift, folding bodies and behaviors previously identified as “monstrous” into the culturally accepted definition of childhood.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Enfreakment in 1950s Horror Comics and Teen Horrorpics Chapter 2 Images of Racial Anxiety in 1960s and 1970s Picture Books Chapter 3 Middle-Class Innocence, Monstrous Material Culture, and the Moral Panics of the 1980s Chapter 4 Monstrous Families from 1990s Series Fiction to the Post-Twilight Era Conclusion How to Make a Monster (Story) References Index

Editorial Reviews

Well-argued and richly detailed … Austin’s sweeping survey of post-war American monster culture offers a compelling and authoritative survey of the material history of the monstrous in children’s media. … Austin’s study has much to offer to anyone with an interest in American popular culture since the post-war era.” —Thomas Connolly, Journal of Pop Culture


“Austin skillfully weaves together material from a range of disciplines––queer theory, children’s literature, film, print media––to illuminate a fresh perspective on the study of monsters and the monstrous. A pleasure to read, from start to finish.” ––Michelle Ann Abate, author of No Kids Allowed: Children’s Literature for Adults


“Austin’s work is a timely piece that deserves accolades for being a strong argument about how viewers, listeners, and readers should academically unpack monstrous works of horror . . . Austin, in the end, has written a thorough and precise book that can truly lay the foundation for other works that speak to children in American horror.” —Douglas C. Macleod, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, TV


“Austin’s review of the roles played by monsters in American children’s and youth media from the 1950s to the present day is incredibly thorough, deeply nuanced, and engaging. I recommend this text not only for scholars of monster studies and/or childhood but also for those who are new beginners in these fields.” —Jennfier Duggan, MAI


“Through keen and timely observations about monsters as cultural products directed towards children, Monstrous Youth expands the critical conversation about monstrosity in American culture and reveals a great deal about the shifting perceptions of youth, innocence, race, class, gender, and outsiders.” ––Jessica R. McCort, author of Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture

“On the whole, this slim book is readable, informative, and makes a clear argument . . . I feel certain that I will incorporate some of the ideas here in my young adult literature course, and to me, that’s where the value of this book lies.” —Rhonda Brock-Servais, Children’s Literature

​“A multi-modal and multi-medial exploration that spends as much time in a history classroom as it does a literature one, Austin’s work nimbly moves about a myriad of topics and age ranges. … It is devastating in its willingness to discuss material culture that has been sorely overlooked otherwise. … In short order, Austin opens an entirely new and greatly needed discussion in children’s and young adult literature scholarship.” —Joseph Michael Sommers, Children’s Literature Quarterly

From the Publisher