The Making(s) of a Girl: Gender and Humanness in Frances Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song
The Making(s) of a Girl: Gender and Humanness in Frances Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song

Summary/Abstract: A common trend in modern fantasy literature for children and young adults is to describe the world from the monster’s point of view. Frances Hardinge’s Cuckoo Song (2014) explores what it means to be a girl from the perspective of a changeling. In the article, I analyze the changeling motif with a focus on gender and humanness. The article shows how non-normative femininity and the non-human are intertwined in the depiction of the changeling. The girl’sfeeling of otherness is portrayed through her unruly and makeshift body that threatens to betrayher by falling apart or taking control of her actions. Only by moving beyond restrictive notions of girlhood and affirming the non-human, can a resolution be achieved. The changeling in Cuckoo Song juxtaposes the non-human with humans that have been represented as the other in Western society, like women, children, and foreign people. Thus, the narrative sheds light on practices of othering and the gendered, racialized, and age-specific norms of human life. Through an exploration of the effects of dehumanization, Hardinge’s novel devises a posthuman ethic underlining all creatures’ right to life.

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