“Every Person Is a Possibility”: A Post-Postmodern Analysis of LGBTQ Young Adult Novel Every Day

Abstract

Abstract:In this article, we examine the distinctions of personhood and identity in David Levithan’s novel Every Day as denoted in the novel’s protagonist, A, a noncorporeal being that inhabits the life and body of a different individual every day. Illustrative of post-postmodernism (McLaughlin, Nealon), the novel posits a central truth to personhood: the truth of our selves lies within individual personal characteristics, rather than socially constructed identity categories. This central truth implies an essentiality to the self, which postmodernists have long refuted. In this way, personhood becomes synonymous with dynamic states of possibilities, disjunctures, and becoming (Deleuze and Guittari).