The Power of Discourse: cml and The Tantrum that Saved the World

Abstract

This research project uses both critical theory and Michel Foucault’s concept of power to analyze a read-aloud children’s picture book titled The Tantrum that Saved the World. Published in 2017 by World Saving Books, the e-version’s 64 colorfully illustrated pages tell of a little girl who stares down the climate crisis, channeling tantrum power into positive action. Equally important, the analysis brings media literacy into dialogue with powerful discursive practices that cannot take hold in the absence of critical theorizing.