Decolonizing Desire: The Indigenous YA Erotics of Cynthia Leitich Smith's Hearts Unbroken

Abstract:This essay examines intersecting depictions of sexual, representational, and political desire in the 2018 YA novel Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee). Engaging Indigenous erotics theory alongside close readings, I characterize the Indigenous YA erotics emerging from Smith's novel in terms of "decolonizing desire," signifying both the novel's decolonizing approach to erotic desire and its intersecting portrayal of a broader desire for decolonization. I argue that the erotic expression of the novel's young Indigenous female protagonist intertwines with other forms of expression to illuminate settler colonial violence and challenge dominant representations that propel it. Her erotic experiences, moreover, enable her and others to embrace Indigenous joy and to explore desire's role in imagining and working towards decolonization. Finally, I contend, Hearts Unbroken strongly appeals to young readers and uniquely adds to Indigenous erotics via its portrayal of desire as malleable and its implication that we, too, can change what and how we desire.