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This paper presents qualitative research findings from a literature-focused classroom project in which EFL (English as a foreign language) learners engage queerly with Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” and Patrick Ness’ young adult (YA) fiction narrative Different for Boys. This project was carried out at a German secondary school (Gymnasium) with a year 11 upper-level class of advanced English. The central rationale of this project – informed by a theoretical basis of literary studies, EFL pedagogy, and queer theory – was to retrace how far the learning processes of students concerning these two texts may validate, irritate or dissipate heteronormative literary readings and interpretations, which are framed here as ‘hetero-normalization’. The results show that a queer focus can draw all learners into critical and committed literary interpretations – with each learner displaying highly individual negotiations located between upfront queer visibility and continued ‘hetero-normalization’.

The present study aims to address the theme of abjection and identity in the American young adult novel Felix Ever After (2021), by Kacen Callender. For that, this bibliographic research uses the content analysis theory proposed by Bardin (1977) in order to make analytical clippings, since, like any literary work, the novel is multifaceted and leads in different directions. The work, divided into four parts, presents the aforementioned theme of abjection and then, in the final part, addresses the issue of identity and two forms of empowerment and response to abjection, the use of self-portraits and the acceptance of love. The theoretical basis used derives from the Queer Theory, the Cultural Studies and Intersectionality, since it is a novel whose protagonist is a young black, transsexual, queer, belonging to a less privileged economic class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The trilogy 'Darkness Before Dawn' by J.A. London (2012–2013) takes place in a city marked by a war that altered the United States of America, both socially and geographically. After supernatural beings revealed their presence to the humans, a conflict arose for the supremacy and eradication of these two groups – a conflict that ends with a treaty in which protection is given to the humans who live within the walls that separate them from the desolation inhabited by vampires but only in exchange for a monthly blood offer. An inhospitable world, plagued by darkness and terror, Denver is an isolated city, in which it is possible to identify common themes to dystopian literature. This essay aims to analyse in this young adult trilogy the figure of the vampire, which is intrinsically linked to the Gothic, and how it relates to the concept of undead memory. This concept will be approached through the notions woven in the study 'Undead Memory: Vampires and Human Memory in Popular Culture', edited by Simon Bacon and Katarzyna Bronk (2013). Through the analysis of this immortal being, which links the past to the present, it will also be explored as its presence in the dystopian society of Darkness Before Dawn forces the presence of the past, thus breaking with the destruction of memory, a common theme in canonical dystopias, like 'Swastika Night' by Katharine Burdekin (1937), 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' by George Orwell (1949) and 'Fahrenheit 451' by Ray Bradbury (1953). Resumo A trilogia 'Darkness Before Dawn' de J.A. London (2012–2013) tem como cenário uma cidade marcada pela guerra, que alterou os Estados Unidos da América, tanto a nível social como geográfico. Após seres sobrenaturais revelarem a sua presença aos humanos desencadeou-se um conflito pela supremacia e erradicação entre estes dois grupos – um conflito que apenas termina com a assinatura de um tratado em que é dada proteção aos seres humanos que habitam dentro das muralhas que os separam da desolação habitada pelos vampiros, mas apenas em troca de uma oferenda de sangue mensal. Um mundo inóspito, assolado pela escuridão e pelo terror, Denver é uma cidade isolada, na qual é possível identificar características comuns à literatura distópica. Este ensaio tem como objetivo analisar nesta trilogia 'young adult' a figura do vampiro, um ser intrinsecamente ligado ao gótico, e como esta se relaciona com o conceito de 'undead memory'. Este conceito será abordado tendo em consideração as noções tecidas no estudo 'Undead Memory: Vampires and Human Memory in Popular Culture', editado por Simon Bacon e Katarzyna Bronk (2013). Através da análise deste ser imortal, que liga o passado ao presente, será também explorado como a sua presença na sociedade distópica de 'Darkness Before Dawn' força a presença do passado, rompendo assim com a destruição da memória que é um tema comum em distopias consideradas canónicas, como 'Swastika Night' de Katharine Burdekin (1937), 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' de George Orwell (1949) e 'Fahrenheit 451' de Ray Bradbury (1953). Palavras-chave: Undead Memory; distopia; ficção young adult; trauma; vampirismo

The present paper aims to reflect on the choice of photography as a constitutive and potential element of Suzy Lee's Alice in Wonderland (2002) pictorial narrative. In her first picture-book, the South Korean book artist uses photographic visual language to structure and record some revelation/forgery games in images that flash incessantly representifications to Lewis Carroll's classic title of Children's Literature. Reflecting on this process of imaginary fictionalization, we take the recent writings of Philippe Dubois (2016, 2017) on the concept of fiction-image, an exponential aspect in the field of contemporary art photography. And to help us out thinking about the sensible repositioning of the look proposed by Suzy Lee's hybrid book - among the literary, plastic, photographic arts -, we've looked for Georges Didi-Huberman's writings (2010, 2013, 2015, 2017) on the double distance comprehension and the montage as thresholds that erupt before the reader, child, young adult, or adult, producing defamiliarization to his experience with the work of art's aura. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]