Megan L. Musgrave DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP IN TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE Imaginary Activism Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature Series Editors Kerry   Mallan Faculty of Education Children and Youth Research Ctr Kelvin Grove ,   Queensland ,   Australia Clare   Bradford School of Communication and Creative Art Deakin University Burwood ,   Victoria ,   Australia This timely new series brings innovative perspectives to research on chil- dren’s literature. It offers accessible but sophisticated accounts of contem- porary critical approaches and applies them to the study of a diverse range of children’s texts - literature, fi lm and multimedia. Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature includes monographs from both internationally recognised and emerging scholars. It demonstrates how new voices, new combinations of theories, and new shifts in the scholarship of literary and cultural studies illuminate the study of children’s texts. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14930 Megan   L.   Musgrave Digital Citizenship in Twenty-First-Century Young Adult Literature Imaginary Activism Megan   L.   M usgrave English Department Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis Indianapolis, Indiana, USA © 2015 Children’s Literature Association. Portions of Chapter 3 fi rst appeared as “Gaming as Civic Engagement in Salman Rushdie’s L uka and the Fire of Life ” by Megan L. Musgrave in C hildren’s Literature Quarterly 40(3) (Fall 2015): 238–256. © 2015 Springer. Portions of Chapter 4 fi rst appeared as “Gamer Girls, Gold Farmers, and Activism I n Real Life ” by Megan L. Musgrave in C hildren’s Literature in Education. 47(2) (June 2016): 161–176. Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature ISBN 978-1-137-60272-5 ISBN 978-1-137-58173-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-58173-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953623 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © Blend Images / Alamy Stock Photo Cover design by Jenny Vong Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York For Oscar and Jude, who make me want to be a better person. And for Eric, who already is the very best person of all. A CKNOWLEDGMENTS I offer my deepest thanks in memory of Adrienne Wadewitz, who helped me discover the seed of the idea that grew into this book, whose life ended far too soon, and whom I miss dearly as a scholar, a colleague, and a friend. Thank you to the organizations that have supported this research with generous grants: the IUPUI Offi ce of the Vice Chancellor for Research, the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, the IUPUI School of Liberal Arts, and the Children’s Literature Association. Parts of Chapter 3 were fi rst published in C hildren’s Literature Quarterly , and parts of Chapter 4 were fi rst published in Children’s Literature in Education . I thank the editors of these publications, Claudia Nelson and Annette Wannamaker, for their support and encouragement and permission to reprint here. Thanks to my incredible colleagues in the English Department at IUPUI: Robert Rebein, you are a phenomenal Chair and the world’s greatest writing coach. Thomas Upton, your investment in me made this possible. Jane Schultz, you have been my friend fi rst, my advocate when I needed one, and my champion always. Dennis Bingham, Karen Kovacik, Missy Kubitschek, and Richard Turner, your mentorship, wisdom, and encouragement have been invaluable. David Beck, Andy Buchenot, Estela Ene, Hannah Haas, Ronda Henry, Michal Hughes, Jennifer Thorington- Springer, Janani Subramanian, Scott Weeden, Jacqui Weeks, and Mel Wininger, each of you has made a unique contribution to this project, and I am blessed to have you as colleagues and friends. And to the invaluable Carrie Sickmann Han: what a difference a year makes. vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my writing partners, for whom simple thanks seem so insuffi - cient: Jaimee Burris, Holly Cusack-McVeigh, and Jane Ronguerude, you sweated blood alongside me as these sentences were written, and so a part of you is in these pages as well. Kerry Ann Rockquemore and the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity: You changed my life. Thank you to the Zionsville Public Library, and to coffee houses every- where for providing legal stimulants and free wireless for working writers. I am eternally grateful for the cherished friends who have nurtured my body and soul through the process of writing this book: Anne Close, Jennifer Lee-Crist, Caitlin Green, Kelly Kasper, Heather Lusk, and Tom Mulhern. Finally, I am deeply thankful for my entire family and their bottom- less well of love and patience. Thanks to my parents, Mike and Portia Musgrave, for instilling in me the intellectual curiosity and work ethic to see this project through. Oscar and Jude, this world is going to be a better place because of the amazing men you are already becoming. Thank you for showing understanding beyond your years, especially when time work- ing on this book meant time away from you. Eric Moosbrugger, love of my life and guardian of my sanity, you deserve more of my gratitude than I can ever express, though I will happily spend the rest of our days looking for ways to express it. I knew I would love you more each day, but I didn’t know you would make it so easy. C ONTENTS Introduction xi 1 Cyborg Bodies in Illness and Disability Narratives 1 2 Cyborg Minds at Play in Participatory Cultures, or, Going Public in Private 4 7 3 Gamer Guys: Playing with Civic Responsibility in  Ludic Fiction 89 4 Gamer Girls: Going Online in the Age of Misogynist Terrorism 129 5 Imaginary Activism 167 6 Conclusion 2 05 Bibliography 2 11 Index 2 23 ix I NTRODUCTION Imaginary Activism is a study of the evolving relationships between litera- ture, cyberspace, and young adults in the twenty-fi rst century. It explores the ways that YA fi ction is becoming a platform for a public conversation about the great benefi ts and terrible risks of our increasing dependence upon technology in public and private life. I use the term i maginary activ- ism to encompass a variety of activities that are depicted in fi ctional con- texts and designed to instigate real-world discussion, engagement, and action. Drawing from Kenneth Burke’s assertion that fi ctional texts enact the symbolic resolution of real-word confl icts and from Maria Bakardjieva’s formulation of subactivism as a representation of the broadening spectrum of activities that merge the personal with the political, I consider how the imaginary forms of activism depicted in literature can prompt young people to contemplate their real-world choices and take action as digital citizens. The twenty-fi rst century has seen a surge of science fi ction and dys- topian texts for young adults that approach issues of civic engagement and activism in diverse ways. Criticism in this area has likewise produced a rich discourse on contemporary speculative fi ction. However, less criti- cal attention has been paid to these same issues of civic engagement and activism as they emerge in realistic fi ction. Here, I take seminal examples from speculative genres into consideration as the leaders of this literary revolution in many ways, but primarily focus on contributions to this con- versation by texts that explore digital citizenship using realistic narrative frameworks. This body of literature presents the wide variety of possi- bilities offered by imaginary activism: it positions readers fi rst to imagine, xi