Cirrus@Austlit

'This article reads Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels (2008) as an intervention in debates about safe spaces and teenage sexuality. I argue that the novel's creation of a parallel universe in which characters are kept safe from sexual trauma functions as a critique of the notion of safe space, whereas the trope of animal transformation is used to address conflicting aspects of male teenage sexuality. Drawing on these themes, the novel formulates an alternative approach to the challenges of trauma and recovery that stresses strength and resilience, arguing that the hardships of reality must be faced head-on.' (Publication abstract)