“It was literally a trauma narrative”: distances/disavowals and guides/gospels in queer postsecondary readings of LGBTQ+ young adult literature

Purpose Even amidst rampant efforts to censor and legislatively regulate queer-identifying people and books about them, many LGBTQ+ adults never had opportunities to see themselves reflected in classroom curriculum. In an effort to use emotions as a lens to understand discursive identity construction, this paper aims to explore how one gay-identifying undergraduate student positioned his own identity in relation to a series of queer-themed young adult (YA) texts. Design/methodology/approach Drawing from a larger practitioner-inquiry project at a Northeastern university, the author focus on the emotional reading responses of one student, naming this participant as a critical instance case. Findings Engaging with theories of identity and reader-response, findings underscore promises and precarities of using LGBTQ+ YA literature as mirrors for queer readers through one participant’s emotional positioning of his personal histories alongside and counter to larger narratives of LGBTQ+ pasts. Originality/value By centering the emotional responses of a queer-identifying reader to LGBTQ+ books, this paper contributes to research on queer literacy studies. Previous research has often focused on secondary or teacher–readers rather than postsecondary students.