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
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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
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