معرفی
Tharini Viswanath is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the McCausland College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on the intersection of feminist and queer theory with children’s and young adult literature, particularly examining the materiality of the feminine body and its agency in YA narratives. She is currently working on a book titled The Discursive Material of the Sexualized Feminine Body in Young Adult Literature, arguing that agency arises from the fluid interplay between voice and physical embodiment, emphasized through community dynamics.
- Specialization: Children’s Literature, Young Adult Literature, Feminist and Queer Theory, Material Feminisms, Critical Race Theory
- Current Research: Analyzes how bodily materiality and discursive frameworks coexist to shape female agency in YA fiction, contrasting examples like Katniss Everdeen’s isolation in The Hunger Games with Cinder’s communal success in The Lunar Chronicles.
Her work explores themes such as the sexualized adolescent body, maternal and cyborg embodiment, racialized and transgender bodies in YA literature. She advocates for feminist pedagogy that centers embodiment and intersectionality in classroom practices, as seen in her 2024 publication on engaged pedagogy. Her scholarship has been published in journals like South Asia and The ALAN Review, addressing stereotypes, agency, and transformative narratives.
Through interdisciplinary analysis, Tharini’s articles and research interrogate postcolonial critiques, dystopian gender dynamics, and ethical lessons in children’s media. She emphasizes the importance of community support for female protagonists, challenging traditional narratives that prioritize individualism over collective resilience.
