Re-writing the Script: Representations of Transgender Creativity in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction and Television

Abstract

The transgender, gender-atypical or intersex protagonist challenges normative assumptions and expectations about gender, identity and sexuality. This article argues that contemporary transgender-themed young adult fiction and television uses the theme of creativity or the creative achievement script to override previously negative representations of adolescent transgender subjectivities. I consider three English-language novels and one television series for young adults and use script theory to analyse these four texts, each of which has an optimistic ending. The television series, Glee (2009- ), is now in its sixth season and therefore has not yet formally concluded. This more recent selection of texts which date from 2011 validate young adult transgender experience and model diversity and acceptance. Cris Beam’s I Am J (2011) and Kirstin Cronn-Mills’ Beautiful Music for Ugly Children (2012), both originally published in the United States, depict female to male transitions. Alyssa Brugman’s Alex as Well (2013), originally published in Australia, foregrounds the experience of an intersex teenager, Alex, raised as a boy, but who, at the age of fourteen, decides she is female. Glee introduced the transgender character Unique in 2012, and she continues to be a central member of the New Directions choir. The Swedish graphic novel, Elias Ericson’s Åror (2013), includes two transgender characters who enact the creative achievement script and fall in love with each other. In other words, Ericson’s graphic novel goes further than the English-language texts to date. Collectively, these transgender, gender-atypical or intersex protagonists and central characters assert their individual agency and creative sense of self. The transgender character’s particular creativity ultimately secures a positive sense of self.

Keywords: transgender; creativity; young adult fiction; television;
Glee; script theory