Preoccupations about the discourse of "happycracy" and censorship in contemporary Children's and Young Adult Literature

Abstract

In this paper, we reflect on the relationship between the concept of happycracy (Cabanas; Illouz, 2022), as a discourse that idealizes happiness and positive thinking, and some contemporary events of attack and censorship of works and authors of Children's and Young Adult Literature. We argue that this discourse is permeated by neoliberal rationality, which holds the individual responsible for their social, emotional, and economic well-being, positioning them as mere consumers. In view of this, we propose that literature, its teaching, and reading mediation practices take place through aesthetic and ethical experiences of resistance, capable of promoting, in the education of children and young people, (dis)encounters with the multiple, the polyphonic, and dissent, which make visible and legitimize other subjectivities and narratives for social life, through a critical linguistic education that questions moralistic and colonial ideological justifications. To this end, we propose political education for teacher-mediators who promote critical curation based on practices that distance themselves from a colonial and exclusionary discourse, self-referential for the well-being and happiness of the self at any cost, but that propose the experience with different literary languages ​​and with different and sensitive themes present in shared social relations.