Research Proposal
1| Research Question & Justification
The writing industry as a whole has come a long way in terms of representation in both the works available and the authors writing them. However, a long withstanding issue in literature has been the treatment of works featuring diversity or women, particularly the infantilization, dismissal, and gatekeeping of such works, an issue that has existed for more than three hundred years. This research project will seek to investigate the possibility of a ‘glass ceiling’ in the context of literature and publishing in order to determine whether there is an infantilization issue when it comes to diverse literature, such as works about or by women, people of color, members of the LGBT+ community, or other marginalized groups. This investigation is to focus primarily on methods of infantilizing diversity such as the mis-categorization of works so that the Young Adult Genre becomes nearly synonymous to Diverse Literature,
the role of gatekeeping “male-dominated” and “non-PC” genres such as Science Fiction and Horror while diverse works or female written or female-led works are put into smaller, lesser categories, and the need for authors to use masculine or androgynous pseudonyms in order to put out more “serious” works.
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Groups that have taken an interest in this issue include discourse communities consisting of female authors and their readers, authors of color and their readers, publishing communities, and perhaps educators and concerned parents when it comes to children reading works that are inappropriate for their age yet marketed towards them. The issue of infantilization of diversity in literature is a relevant problem to address as it involves a major aspect of education and entertainment, particularly in terms of sociocultural relationships and feminism. The dismissal of diverse works in an industry where expertise or caliber is primarily attributed to older, Caucasian, often heterosexual men limits the progression of the field as a whole as authors of equal or better merit are reduced to categories and genres regarded as “lesser” by the same authorities whose works dominate the better respected areas of literature. Furthermore, the disregard for the novels’ content because of their authors or characters may result in works being marketed inappropriately, particularly in regards to explicit or high context works being advertised towards a younger group that lacks the maturity or understanding to appreciate such works as they are not the intended audience.
2| Preliminary Research
Preliminary research began at a surface level with looking into informal online discourse communities in order to find examples of works that faced such discrimination in terms of audience reception. Furthermore, accounts and discussion of instances of authors, particularly female authors, whose works have not been taken seriously as adult works, including blog posts and interviews with authors such as R. F. Kuang, author of The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic, both of which are adult fantasy novels marketed as Young Adult were investigated. These accounts serve as anecdotal evidence and examples of firsthand experiences with this issue. Essays written in regard to this topic and on the purpose of male pseudonyms are included in the preliminary research.
3| Further Research
Differences between Young Adult, Middle Grade, New Adult, and Adult Literature are to be further investigated in order to have a clearer grasp on why these authors believe in distinguishing their works from other genres, as well as research on the impact of female authors and views on marginalization in order to view the topics relevance to media as a whole. It is necessary to research evidence of this issue in other aspects of media as multiple sources indicated that the root cause of the issue may be in the publishers and marketing of the novels. Therefore, it will also be beneficial to further investigate the role of discrimination in such industries, particularly misogyny and racism. Diversity in different literary genres are to be compared and analyzed, as well as the role of publishing and marketing in the perception of diverse works in order to recognize the possibility of other motivations behind the infantilization of diverse media. Experiences of other authors, the effect of exposure to inappropriate works, and whether the reverse of this phenomenon are true, where works written by Caucasian men at a young adult or middle grade level are regarded as higher level than they truly are will be researched as supplementary evidence.