Dr Jennifer Gouck – Rewriting the Road: YA Literature, Teen Pregnancy, and the Abortion Journey
| Hello! My name is Jennifer Gouck and I am a specialist in Young Adult (YA) literature from Northern Ireland. I completed my BA and MA degrees at Queen’s University Belfast and earned my PhD from University College Dublin. My PhD project explored depictions of a character type called the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) in American YA fiction. I’m very excited to be hosted by Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl, the Chair of American Studies, during my WiRe Fellowship this year. My current research focuses on literary and cultural representations of teen pregnancy and abortion in contemporary American YA – a very timely topic given the ongoing debates within U.S. politics. In particular, I’m interested in what I call the ‘abortion road trip’, where a female protagonist must travel to access reproductive healthcare. Road trips are often understood as a transformative coming-of-age experience for teenage boys, so what happens when the road changes from a symbol of freedom to one of the restrictions placed on women’s bodies? A fun fact about me is that I collect different editions of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A Penguin edition from 1950, bought for me by a friend, is one of my favourites! . |
Host Institute: Institute of American Studies
Scientific Host: Prof. Dr. Silvia Schultermandl