The Country's a Drag
Examining Queer Rural Spaces in Julie Murphy's Pumpkin
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2376-5275.2024.6.2.92-109Keywords:
rural, queer, out-migration, drag, rural-urban binaryAbstract
This paper examines the queer rural spaces in Julie Murphy’s 2021 young adult novel Pumpkin. In particular, it explores the concepts of rural-urban binaries, rural out-migration, and drag culture as they are related to the LGBTQ+ community. The author argues that Pumpkin creates a portrait of modern rural communities that confutes previous assumptions that queer people don’t exist in rural spaces, and if they do, they must leave in order to find acceptance and community.
References
Annes, A. & Redlin, M. (2012). Coming out and coming back: Rural gay migration and the city. Journal of Rural Studies, 28, 56-68. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2011.08.005
Artz, G. (2003). Rural brain drain: Is it reality?” Choices. https://www.choicesmagazine.org/2003-4/2003-4-03.htm
Beach, R. et al. (2009) C. (2008). Exploring the “critical” in critical content analysis of children’s literature. 58th yearbook of the National Reading Conference.
Bikalis, J. (2008). (2022, August 12). Drag exploded in popularity. Then came the protests and attacks. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/12/drag-mainstream-attacks-crossroads
Blackburn, M.V. (2022). Moving across differences: How students engage LGBTQ+ themes in a high school literature class. SUNY Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2023.2166643
Butler, J. (1990). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.
Cart, M. & Jenkins, C.A. (2006). The heart has its reasons: Young adult literature with gay/lesbian/queer content, 1969-2004. Scarecrow Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/e1755619808000185
Cart, M. & Kaywell, J.F. (2018). “The history of queer young adult literature.” In P. Greathouse, B. Eisenbach & J.F. Kaywell (Eds.), Queer adolescent literature as a complement to the English language arts curriculum (pp.1-8). Rowman and Littlefield.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, June 21). Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health. https://www.cdc.gov/lgbthealth/youth.htm.
Connor, C.T. (2021, March 4). Queer in the country: Why some LGBTQ Americans prefer rural life to urban “gayborhoods.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/queer-in-the-country-why-some-lgbtq-americans-prefer-rural-life-to-urban-gayborhoods-155616
Connor, C.T. & Okamura, D. (2021). Queer expectations: An empirical critique of rural LGBT+ narratives. Sexualities. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/13634607211013280
Crisp, T. (2009). From romance to magical realism: Limits and possibilities in gay adolescent fiction. Children’s Literature in Education, 40, 333-348. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-009-9089-9
Crisp, T. (2008). The trouble with Rainbow Boys. Children’s Literature in Education, 39, 237-261. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-007-9057-1
Gorman-Murray, A. (2007). Rethinking queer migration through the body. Social & Cultural Geography, 8(1). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649360701251858
Hillman, B.L. (2011). “The most profoundly revolutionary act a homosexual can engage in”: Drag and the politics of gender presentation in the San Francisco gay liberation movement, 1964-1972. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 20(1), 153-181.
Hitchcock, L. (2021, May 25). Bullies are no match for rainbows and drag queens in Julie Murphy’s “Pumpkin.” Booktrib, https://booktrib.com/2021/05/25/bullies-are-no-match-for-rainbows-and-drag-queens-in-julie-murphys-pumpkin/
Jagose, A. (1996). Queer theory. New York University Press.
Junod, A.N., Salerno, C. & Scally, C.P. (2020, October 30). Debunking three myths about rural America. Urban Institute. www.urban.org/urban-wire/debunking-three-myths-about-rural-america.
Keenan, H.B. (2017), Unscripting curriculum: Towards a critical trans pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 87(4), 538-556. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-87.4.538
Keenan, H.B., & Hot Mess, L.M. (2020). Drag pedagogy: The playful practice of queer imagination in early childhood. Curriculum Inquiry, 50(5), 440-461. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1864621
Keys, W., Marshall, E. & Pini, B. (2017). Representations of rural lesbian lives in young adult fiction. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2017.1306981
Kidd, K.B. (2004). Making American boys: Boyology and the feral tale. University of Minnesota Press.
Kleese, N. (2021, May 20). No place to die: Neoliberalism, anti-idyll, and social (im)mobility in The Serpent King. Children’s Literature in Education. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10583-021-09455-8
Kleese, N., Eppley, K., & Brenner, D. (2022). The whippoorwill award criteria: Analyzing representations of rurality in middle-grade and young adult literature. The ALAN Review, 50(1), 56-66.
Levithan, D. (2003). Boy meets boy. Alfred A. Knopf.
Lopez, B. (2022, September 19). Texas has banned more books than any other state, new report shows. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/19/texas-book-bans/
MasterClass. (2021, June 7). What is drag? A primer on drag queens in popular culture. MasterClass, http://masterclass.com/articles/a-primer-on-drag-queens-in-popular-culture. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.36019/9781978813908-005
McGranahan, D. et al. (2010, December 1). The two faces of rural population loss through outmigration. U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2010/december/the-two-faces-of-rural-population-loss-through-outmigration/
Morris, E.B. (2021, July 30). “Pumpkin” ends a trilogy filled with boundary-breaking, body-positive characters. Southern Review of Books. https://southernreviewofbooks.com/2021/07/30/pumpkin-julie-murphy-review/
Murdoch, S. & Cline, M. (2021). Texas population: Still growing and increasingly diverse. The Texas Almanac. https://www.texasalmanac.com/articles/texas-population-still-growing
Murphy, J. (2021). Pumpkin. Balzer + Bray.
Nichols, G.W. (2017). Rural drag: Fashioning rurality and privilege. QED: A Journal of GLBTQ Worldmaking, 4(3), 41-66. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14321/qed.4.3.0041
Park, B. (2022, March 7). Texas students push back against book bans for censoring LGBTQ, racial justice issues. The Texas Tribune. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/07/texas-students-banned-books-protest-clubs/
Parton, C. & Kuehl, R. (2023). “Bet you can’t want to get out: Complicating narratives of leaving in rural young adult literature. Journal of Literacy Research, 55(4), 406-427. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1086296x231215758
Petrone, R. & Wynhoff-Olsen, A. (2021). Teaching English in rural communities: Toward a critical English pedagogy. Rowman & Littlefield.
Pini, B. et al. (2017). Queering rurality: Reading The Miseducation of Cameron Post geographically. Children’s Geographies. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2016.1252830
Schmitz, R.M. & Tabler, J. (2021, November 13). Here and queer in rural American. Ms. https://msmagazine.com/2021/11/13/lgbtq-rural-america-queer/
Slepyan, A. (2021, April 9). Rural queer history: Hidden in plain sight. The Daily Yonder. https://dailyyonder.com/rural-queer-history-hidden-in-plain-sight/2021/04/09/
Spanier, J. (2021). Rural futurism: Assembling the future of the countryside. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 20(1), 120-141.
Trites, R.S. (1998). Queer discourse and the young adult novel: Repression and power in gay male adolescent literature. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 23(3), 143-15. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/chq.0.1203
Whitworth, C. (2017). Sissy that performance script! The queer pedagogy of RuPaul’s Drag Race. In Brennan, N. & Gudelunas, D. (Eds.), RuPaul’s Drag Race and the shifting visibility of drag culture: The boundaries of reality TV (pp. 137-151). Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50618-0_10
Winter, J. (2022, July 11). What should a queer children’s book do? How a vital, burgeoning genre of kid lit is being threatened across the country. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/lgbt-books-kids-ban
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Gretchen L. Schroeder
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
