Postsecular Performativity in Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief Series

Abstract Much young adult (YA) fiction still upholds the ideology of Western Enlightenment subjectivity and runs the risk, as postsecular theorists Talal Asad and Saba Mahmood have argued, of denying agency to religious subjects. When modernity’s emphasis on individual freedom has been warped to the detriment of community, the postsecular performativity of Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series provides YA readers with refreshing alternatives. Within Turner’s novels, performing the myths of the gods becomes a powerful force for communal flourishing. Even though performing the gods’ stories places checks on unbridled individualism, this does not preclude the possibility of agency exercised for the common good. In the Queen’s Thief series, as in postsecularism, individual agency and divine intervention can coexist: modern selfhood and premodern porosity combine. Human characters re-enact the myths of the gods, while yet remaining themselves. Turner’s novels thus represent prospects for a more fully inclusive postsecularism in YA fiction.