Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Document Type
Poster
Publication Date
Spring 5-7-2025
Faculty Advisor(s)
Ian Barnard
Abstract
This presentation delves into examples of LGBTQ+ authors and characters within the choose your own adventure genre. With a primary focus on Anna Anthropy’s story game “queers in love at the end of the world” and Carmen Maria Machado’s memoir In The Dream House, instances of queerness found within the choose your own adventure genre are analyzed. Anthropy’s story game depicts two women with ten seconds to live until the world ends. The story game itself only exists for ten total seconds before players are given the chance to restart and try again. Machado’s memoir retells her experience in an abusive relationship with a woman, but told through various story tropes and genres. The chapter “The Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure” depicts a day in the life of Machado and her abusive girlfriend. Anthropy’s identity as a transgender woman and lesbian, as well as Machado’s bisexual identity, are taken into consideration. How might these women have felt trapped within their lives, and wished they had the opportunity to try again? As this genre is typically reserved for children’s books and video games, any occurrences outside of the norm are studied with the driving question: why are LGBTQ+ people so drawn to the choose your own adventure format?
Recommended Citation
Kamola, Haley, "Queerness in the Ability to Choose" (2025). Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters. 735.
https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/cusrd_abstracts/735
Included in
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Queer Studies Commons, Rhetoric and Composition Commons
Comments
Presented at the Spring 2025 Student Scholar Symposium at Chapman University.