Rowland, Samuel John
Stop Making Sense: Synaesthesia and Subjective Dissonance In Children's and Young Adult Fiction
ABSTRACT
There is a growing number of juvenile novels and picture books that mean to educate the reader about synaesthesia. The synaesthete in these texts for young readers desires to be a social agent, yet sh/e also considers synaesthesia to be a healing power and a deeply personal psychedelic form of escapism; I argue that the synaesthete in these texts `uses' their synaesthesia to dissipate emotional trauma caused by pubescent uncertainty and social isolation. In this thesis, I propose that YA and Children's texts that feature synaesthesia generally reinforce the discursive constraints of normative perception, and they also promulgate the assumption that synaesthesia is an extraordinary form of cognition instead of a legitimate subject position.
Author Keywords: Authenticity, Liminality, Repesentation, Synaesthesia, Synesthesia, Zizek