Self-Efficacy And Solidarity As Resistance Against Domination In Jacqueline Wilson’s Selected Works
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Date
2017-08
Authors
Toh, Florence Haw Ching
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
Jacqueline Wilson is recognized as one of the prominent authors of
contemporary realistic children’s literature. A former Children’s Laureate (2005-2007)
whose books have been translated into over 30 languages, her works are only
beginning to gain attention within the academia. The thesis responds to this gap in the
scholarship by analyzing the pre-adolescent girl protagonists in three of her selected
texts. They are Dolphin in The Illustrated Mum (1999), Lola Rose in Lola Rose (2003)
and Lily in Lily Alone (2011). The novels are read through the feminist lens of Amy
Allen’s primary work, The power of feminist theory: Domination, resistance,
solidarity (1999). The discussion charts how the pre-adolescent girl protagonists are
dominated in various forms such as domestic abuse, child neglect, psychological
maltreatment, as well as school bullying. The analysis is further illuminated through
Albert Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy forwarded in his work Self-efficacy: The
exercise of control (1997). The thesis argues that self-efficacy enhanced through
various sources such as enactive mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal
persuasion, and physiological and affective states, empower the pre-adolescent girl
protagonists to effect individual resistance against the instances of domination
depicted. In addition, the discusison highlights how self-efficacy enables Dolphin,
Lola Rose and Lily to seek, receive, offer and form collective resistance through
solidarity with other characters within the stories to ultimately challenge and
overthrow the domination encountered. In essence, the research aims to promote the
interdisciplinary reading of literary texts, particularly in the niche area of
contemporary realistic children’s literature.
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Keywords
Jacqueline Wilson is recognized as , contemporary realistic children’s literature