Bibliotherapy and OCD: The Case of Turtles All The Way Down by John Green (2017)

Michael Hall

Abstract


This case study uses three different frameworks of inquiry to examine Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (2017) with a disability lens. The analysis extends beyond the traditional medical/social dichotomy and considers how disability is tied to both agency and identity. Narratives and counter-narratives of disability are also investigated, as well as disability markers used in previous scholarship. The discussion concludes with an argument to include the novel in secondary English classes to create mental health allies.  A consideration for medical humanities scholars is also included to use Green’s text with patients with OCD, as a way for readers to find an identifiable protagonist.


Keywords


young adult literature; mental illness; obsessive-compulsive disorder

Full Text:

PDF

References


Adomat, Donna Sayers. “Exploring Issues of Disability in Children’s Literature Discussions.”

Disability Studies Quarterly 34, no. 3 (April 2014): 1-17.

https://doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v34i3.3865

Curwood, Jen Scott. “Redefining Normal: A Critical Analysis of (Dis)Ability in Young Adult

Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education44, no. 1 (2012): 15–28.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-012-9177-0.

Green, John. Turtles All the Way Down. New York: Penguin Books, 2017.

Hughes, Chloe. “The ‘Words inside’: ‘Disabled’ Voices in Contemporary Literature for Young People.” Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies11, no. 2 (2017): 187 203.

Kurtts, Stephanie A., and Karen W. Gavigan. “Understanding (Dis)Abilities through Children’s Literature.” Education Libraries31, no. 3 (May 2017): 23. https://doi.org/10.26443/el.v31i3.259.

Monaghan, Alison. “Evaluating Representations of Mental Health in Young Adult Fiction: The Case of Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” Enthymema16 (2016): 32 42.

Petrone, Robert, Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, and Mark Lewis. “The Youth Lens: Analyzing Adolescence/Ts in Literary Texts.” Journal of Literacy Research46 (2015): 506–33.

Richmond, Kia Jane. “Using Literature to Confront the Stigma of Mental Illness, Teach Empathy, and Break Stereotypes.” Language Arts Journal of Michigan30, no. 1 (January 2014). https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149x.2038.

Richmond, Kia Jane. Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature: Exploring Real Struggles through Fictional Characters. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2019.

Siebers, Tobin. Disability Theory. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2011.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/nh.2020.5.74-87
Date of publication: 2020-09-04 12:41:31
Date of submission: 2020-01-01 01:05:34


Statistics


Total abstract view - 1998
Downloads (from 2020-06-17) - PDF - 0

Indicators



Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2020 Michael Hall

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.