Abstract
Media reports have increasingly focused on incidents of bullying and their effects on children, particularly in relation to cyber-bullying and children’s use of social media. Unsurprisingly, narratives of bullying feature prominently in recent fiction for the young. This chapter considers a selection of contemporary texts that incorporate narratives of bullying, drawing on Foucault’s theories of knowledge and power, and his genealogical approach to knowledge. We focus on three aspects of bullying narratives: their treatment of the origins and causes of bullying; their representations of the power dynamics involved; and the extent to which narrative outcomes address subject formation and the possibility of change. These texts, and many similar to them, position young readers to understand bullies, the bullied, and the contexts in which bullying occurs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Works Cited
Almond, David, and Dave McKean. The Savage. Walker Books, 2008.
Foucault, Michel. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. Edited by Colin Gordon, Pantheon Books, 1980.
———. The History of Sexuality. 1981. Penguin, 2008.
MacLean, Jill. The Hidden Agenda of Sigrid Sugden. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2013.
Mean Girls. Directed by Mark Waters, performances by Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, Tim Meadows, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler, Paramount Pictures, 2004.
Medina, Meg. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. Candlewick Press, 2014.
Pung, Alice. Laurinda. Black Inc., 2014.
Shiner, Larry. “Reading Foucault: Anti-method and the Genealogy of Power-Knowledge.” History and Theory, vol. 21, no. 3, 2001, pp. 382–398.
Zorn, Claire. The Protected. Queensland University Press, 2014.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bradford, C., Hedberg, L. (2018). Bullies, the Bullied and Bullying Narratives in Contemporary Fiction. In: Flegel, M., Parkes, C. (eds) Cruel Children in Popular Texts and Cultures. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72275-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72275-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-72274-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-72275-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)