Dystopic discourse in children's literature and the biopolitics of the child

Political discourse and criticism has been a frequently used approach in children's and young adult literature recently. Even though approaching literary texts that address adult readers from a political point of view is a commonly used practice, this has also taken its place in children's literature in the recent years both covertly and sometimes under didacticism. Although children characters are not in the forefront in literary texts that address adults, there have appeared popular children and young adult characters who managed to create their own audience in the recently developing children's and young adult literatures in terms of the audience and market conditions. These characters have not only been behaving accordingly to the liking of the adult and been a model child, but are characters who are leaders and saviors, and sometimes bring a political criticism. Thus, it can be said that the child has strengthened the individuality which he has discovered, in literary works. In other words, the child, as a character has discovered his individuality as a sovereign character just as the adult. Discovery of the self and possession of power concepts that accompany individuality bring about a political point of view to events, characters, and situations in these texts. Nevertheless, the acquisition of autonomy and power also means that the individual is now equipped with a certain political stance. This is not only valid for the adult but also the child character. It is possible to evaluate children's and young adult literature texts with a postmodern approach because of this political side. One of these views is Michel Foucault's biopolitics concept that he developed as a social criticism and later developed by many different philosophers. The economic and social structure that was brought about after the post-1970s liberal and neoliberal state organizations have been subjects of debate by Foucault and many other political and social academicians particularly in terms of these politics deconstructing sovereign power and creating ambiguity for the individual through a decentering, but at the same time sustaining and enhancing their power covertly. Although biopolitics, in its origins, did not emerge in such a disciplinary approach, with the dominance of neoliberal politics, biopolitics was also transformed into a structure in which disciplinary power of the state and the dispozitifs it uses propose a danger for the individual's life. The central power, through the use of various tools and gadgets, can now monitor and utilize citizens no matter their age. This exposure is valid not only for the adults and senior citizens but also targets the children of all ages: the individual has now become a biological matter at the disposal of the government. This notion that Foucault describes as a new governmentality shows the biopower of the government: the individual should not be crushed under the power, but should be given the necessary space and tools for living but at the same time be controllable. However, under a dystopic environment, whose governmentality idea tends to be totalitarian, the individual in the society turns into merely a productive but, when needed, a disposable body, thereby decreasing the human body only into a biological mass, and a whole nation to a controllable mass of bodies. This approach, which is a brief definition of biopolitics view, is later reevaluated in terms of the immunity of the government by Roberto Esposito, who adds the notion of immunity to biopolitics as a paradigm. However, the immunity is evaluated from the perspective of both the government and the individual who possesses his own immunity towards the outer effects. Among all these, the child and the young adult individual who were left in the background play an equal role as the adult. The aim of this study is to determine the position of the child and young adult individual in this governmental approach. In order to exemplify the status of the child in a dystopic environment and according to a biopolitical perspective, three children's literature books are chosen as they feature child and young adult characters who struggle against the disciplinary power and even oppressive governmentality. Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games and Lois Lowry's The Giver pose a description of a neoliberal society; the former expressing an oppressive political structure which justifies its biopower by making children into voluntary killers in a competition which gives the book its title; and the latter, disguised as a utopic place and society, only to be discovered by the young protagonist to be dystopic. The third book by Gudrun Pausewang can be described as a post-apocalyptic dystopia which occurs after a nuclear explosion almost wiping out an entire community of a country, and in which the child protagonist suffers the death of close family and friends. The last dystopia, classified as one of the sub-genres of dystopic fiction does not necessarily involve a neoliberal structure; nevertheless, the child's struggle to construct a new society proposes a specific child figure in such an environment. All three literary texts attempt to sketch a child/young adult character who is expected and also made to find their strength and find their stance against in a dystopic environment. The unorthodox representation of the child in fictional works reveal the fact that a new child hero/heroine is rising in literature. Apart from making a description of such a character, this study will also present a modern genealogical analysis of the child and young adult by studying the history of children's and young adult literature and evaluate the concept in the light of views of Michel Foucault's and post-Foucauldian philosophers.