After-Effects: A Feminist Poststructural Exploration of the Young Adult Series “After” and Discourses of Romanticized Abuse

Abstract

This thesis is a feminist poststuctural discourse analysis of the young adult (YA) romance series After by Anna Todd. The After trilogy follows a romanticized abusive relationship between two heterosexual characters that relies on stereotypical and binarized performances of masculinity and femininity to maintain the storyline. In my analysis, I first relied on Judith Butler’s (1990) theory of gender performativity to explore how gendered power is constructed and maintained through the romanticization of abuse in the series. Then, I drew on Eve Sedgwick’s (2003) concept of reparative reading, to understand how the After series offers a particular kind of comfort to its readers, who are largely heterosexual teen girls. My qualitative thesis employed feminist discourse analysis (FDA) to identify the gendered tropes in the books. I paired a textual analysis of the series with a textual analysis of specific posts on the social media platform Reddit, which is dedicated to community-based discussion groups. I selected specific threads related to the After series to explore how readers described their experiences reading and relating to the texts. Four main themes emerged from this Reddit analysis: 1) Relating to the characters; 2) How the series functions as a form of escapism; 3) Awareness of toxicity in Hardin and Tessa’s relationship; and 4) Reflections on reading the series in their younger years. In my conclusion, I argue that the binarized performances of masculinity and femininity by the characters in the After series are what sustain and allow the gendered romance-related tropes in the texts. From the Reddit posts, it is evident that reading the series is uniquely reparative for many readers, whether it provides comfort, an escape from everyday life, or a chance to reflect on past or present experiences.