The Manic Pixie Dream Girl in US YA Fiction: Introducing a Narrative Model

Jennifer Gouck

doi:10.24877/ijyal.49

Abstract

Coined in 2007 by film critic Nathan Rabin, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a quirky, ethereal figure who exists merely as a tool for self-actualisation and has no narrative purpose beyond that of enriching the life of an apathetic, White, male, cisgender, heterosexual, middle-class protagonist. Despite her pervasiveness across film and television, popular culture, and literature – particularly contemporary YA fiction such as John Green’s Looking for Alaska (2005) – the Pixie remains a wholly understudied figure. To address this gap in the field, this article offers a narrative model for a novel type I call ‘MPDGYA’, a pattern I have identified across YA texts, all either published or set in the US, in which the Pixie features. I argue that this five-stage model can not only be used to understand and analyse typical Pixie texts, but can also function, for example, as a means of assessing attempts to challenge or intervene in MPDG discourse. To demonstrate this, the article contains two case studies: Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything (2013), exemplary of a typical Pixie novel, and Gretchen McNeil’s I’m Not Your Manic Pixie Dream Girl (2016), an interventionist text. In engaging with two novels at either end of the Pixie discourse spectrum, my work here argues that the MPDGYA model lays important groundwork not only for research opportunities in the field of YA studies, but for the emergence of collaborative and intersectional approaches to the Pixie – and the texts in which she appears – across multiple disciplines.

Highlights

At the time of writing, the search term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” (MPDG) yields over 1.2 million results on Google, ranging from think pieces for sites such as Glamour and Jezebel, to fan-made compilation images of classic Manic Pixies such as Elizabethtown’s Claire Colburn and Garden State’s Sam, to bright and bubbly Buzzfeed quizzes earnestly asking, “Which Manic Pixie Dream Girl Are You?”
Typing the same search term into audio streaming service Spotify reveals over 200 songs, 45 albums, and five podcasts featuring or discussing the Pixie
Dominant but oppressively normative – a privilege-infused, cultural racialisation that actively marginalises those who fall outside it. In each of her manifestations, the Pixie exists solely to enrich the life of the White, cisgender, heterosexual, middle-class male protagonist, who is often in a state of ennui before the MPDG’s arrival or, at the very least, lives an almost overwhelmingly unremarkable life

Summary

INTRODUCTION

At the time of writing, the search term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” (MPDG) yields over 1.2 million results on Google, ranging from think pieces for sites such as Glamour and Jezebel, to fan-made compilation images of classic Manic Pixies such as Elizabethtown’s Claire Colburn and Garden State’s Sam, to bright and bubbly Buzzfeed quizzes earnestly asking, “Which Manic Pixie Dream Girl Are You?”. Dominant but oppressively normative – a privilege-infused, cultural racialisation that actively marginalises those who fall outside it In each of her manifestations, the Pixie exists solely to enrich the life of the White, cisgender, heterosexual, middle-class male protagonist, who is often in a state of ennui before the MPDG’s arrival or, at the very least, lives an almost overwhelmingly unremarkable life. This enrichment usually comes in the form of interactions filled with whimsy and adventure, leading to a gradual opening of the protagonist’s eyes so he can see the extraordinary in the ordinary and undergo personal growth. Comprised of five stages or markers, the model can be outlined as follows:

Setting up the Mystique

A Bump in the Road

Findings

CONCLUSION