Toward a Minor Lit: Reading Power in Douglass, Caulfield, and Breedlove

Abstract:This article presents a Deleuzian reconfiguration of how we read power in literature as it pertains to young peoples. "Minor lit" is introduced as a theoretical framework to highlight the often overlooked power of children and adolescent subjects, a decidedly minor power with arguably major political implications. Critical readings of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Bluest Eye offer familiar yet challenging perspectives on the unique minor position as well as the major power structures of children's—and canonical—literature.