Are You There, Reader? It’s Me, Margaret: A Reconsideration of Judy Blume’s Prose as Sororal Dialogism

Judy Blume’s 1970 problem novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret explores the dynamism found not just within the sociocultural shift in the plot of young female protagonist but also a shift between authored subject and reader. This article re-examines Blume as a writer not simply working within the staid boundaries of the problem novel but as an author testing the boundaries of narrative space and time to construct a “sororal dialogism” between reader and narrative protagonist. Blume genders the text by creating a conversation of an empathic nature, constructing bonds between girls on subject matter once considered taboo.