Julia L. Mickenberg
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195152807
- eISBN:
- 9780199788903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152807.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter explores how proletarian or revolutionary children's literature produced under the aegis of the Communist Party set precedents for popular children's literature produced in the 1940s and ...
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This chapter explores how proletarian or revolutionary children's literature produced under the aegis of the Communist Party set precedents for popular children's literature produced in the 1940s and later by leftists. Building on models imported from the Soviet Union and Europe, as well as literature written early in the 20th century for Socialist Sunday Schools and often incorporating themes, principles, and aesthetics from progressive education, proletarian children's literature was limited in its audience because of its sectarian tone. However, it represents a conscious attempt to make children's literature part of a radical party program, and it often foregrounded scientific, historical, and anti-racist themes that would recur in later, more mainstream work by radicals. The chapter gives particular attention to the magazine of the Communist Young Pioneers, the New Pioneer, which published the work of several individuals who would later become writers or illustrators of popular books for children, among them Syd Hoff (writing here as A. Redfield), Helen Kay, Ben Appel, William Gropper, Myra Page, and Ernest Crichlow. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Popo and Fifina, Children of Haiti, by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, a book that was arguably proletarian in its subject matter but written for a popular audience.Less
This chapter explores how proletarian or revolutionary children's literature produced under the aegis of the Communist Party set precedents for popular children's literature produced in the 1940s and later by leftists. Building on models imported from the Soviet Union and Europe, as well as literature written early in the 20th century for Socialist Sunday Schools and often incorporating themes, principles, and aesthetics from progressive education, proletarian children's literature was limited in its audience because of its sectarian tone. However, it represents a conscious attempt to make children's literature part of a radical party program, and it often foregrounded scientific, historical, and anti-racist themes that would recur in later, more mainstream work by radicals. The chapter gives particular attention to the magazine of the Communist Young Pioneers, the New Pioneer, which published the work of several individuals who would later become writers or illustrators of popular books for children, among them Syd Hoff (writing here as A. Redfield), Helen Kay, Ben Appel, William Gropper, Myra Page, and Ernest Crichlow. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Popo and Fifina, Children of Haiti, by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, a book that was arguably proletarian in its subject matter but written for a popular audience.
Julia L. Mickenberg
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195152807
- eISBN:
- 9780199788903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152807.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This introductory chapter opens with Howard Fast's Tony and the Wonderful Door (1952), which Fast wrote and self-published when he was blacklisted from most media because of his association with the ...
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This introductory chapter opens with Howard Fast's Tony and the Wonderful Door (1952), which Fast wrote and self-published when he was blacklisted from most media because of his association with the Communist Party. Fast's tale, about a boy who can travel through time, is likewise an entry point for exploring the questions of why and how radicals, including those suffering from blacklisting, were able to publish children's books at the height of the McCarthy era. Although it is true that children's literature tends to support the dominant power structure, in the mid-20th century, children's literature became a key outlet for the Old Left, or people radicalized in the 1930s and marginalized in the 1950s. The Old Left's prominence in the children's literature field in the years following World War II points to their broader influence on American culture during a period usually seen as closed off to dissent.Less
This introductory chapter opens with Howard Fast's Tony and the Wonderful Door (1952), which Fast wrote and self-published when he was blacklisted from most media because of his association with the Communist Party. Fast's tale, about a boy who can travel through time, is likewise an entry point for exploring the questions of why and how radicals, including those suffering from blacklisting, were able to publish children's books at the height of the McCarthy era. Although it is true that children's literature tends to support the dominant power structure, in the mid-20th century, children's literature became a key outlet for the Old Left, or people radicalized in the 1930s and marginalized in the 1950s. The Old Left's prominence in the children's literature field in the years following World War II points to their broader influence on American culture during a period usually seen as closed off to dissent.
Marah Gubar
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336252
- eISBN:
- 9780199868490
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336252.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book proposes a fundamental reconception of the 19th-century attitude toward the child. The Romantic ideology of innocence spread more slowly than we think, it contends, and the people whom we ...
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This book proposes a fundamental reconception of the 19th-century attitude toward the child. The Romantic ideology of innocence spread more slowly than we think, it contends, and the people whom we assume were most committed to it—children’s authors and members of the infamous “cult of the child”—were actually deeply ambivalent. Writers such as Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and J. M. Barrie often resisted the growing cultural pressure to erect a strict barrier between child and adult, innocence and experience. Instead of urging young people to mold themselves to match a static ideal of artless simplicity, they frequently conceived of children as precociously literate, highly socialized beings who—though indisputably shaped by the strictures of civilized life—could nevertheless cope with such influences in creative ways. By entertaining the idea that contact with the adult world does not necessarily victimize children, these authors reacted against Dickensian plots which imply that youngsters who work and play alongside adults (including the so-called Artful Dodger) are not in fact inventive or ingenious enough to avoid a sad fate. To find the truly artful child characters from this era, the book maintains, we must turn to children’s literature, a genre that celebrates the canny resourcefulness of young protagonists without claiming that they enjoy unlimited power and autonomy.Less
This book proposes a fundamental reconception of the 19th-century attitude toward the child. The Romantic ideology of innocence spread more slowly than we think, it contends, and the people whom we assume were most committed to it—children’s authors and members of the infamous “cult of the child”—were actually deeply ambivalent. Writers such as Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and J. M. Barrie often resisted the growing cultural pressure to erect a strict barrier between child and adult, innocence and experience. Instead of urging young people to mold themselves to match a static ideal of artless simplicity, they frequently conceived of children as precociously literate, highly socialized beings who—though indisputably shaped by the strictures of civilized life—could nevertheless cope with such influences in creative ways. By entertaining the idea that contact with the adult world does not necessarily victimize children, these authors reacted against Dickensian plots which imply that youngsters who work and play alongside adults (including the so-called Artful Dodger) are not in fact inventive or ingenious enough to avoid a sad fate. To find the truly artful child characters from this era, the book maintains, we must turn to children’s literature, a genre that celebrates the canny resourcefulness of young protagonists without claiming that they enjoy unlimited power and autonomy.
Marah Gubar
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336252
- eISBN:
- 9780199868490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336252.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This introduction proposes that Golden Age children’s authors and members of the cult of the child were at best ambivalent and often hostile to the growing cultural pressure to conceive of children ...
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This introduction proposes that Golden Age children’s authors and members of the cult of the child were at best ambivalent and often hostile to the growing cultural pressure to conceive of children as a separate species from adults. Rather than wholeheartedly embracing the “Child of Nature” paradigm, figures such as Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame conceived of children as socially saturated, highly acculturated beings—and, unlike Dickens and other chroniclers of childhood writing primarily for adults, these and other children’s authors refused to assume that precocious exposure to the civilized world would doom the child to a depressing fate. Contemporary reviews of Golden Age children’s classics and 19th-century discourse about the cult of the child reveal that Golden Age commentators recognized this: ironically, the two groups most strongly faulted by recent critics for portraying childhood as a static, remote, and idealized state—children’s authors and members of the cult—were censured in their own time for failing to promote a Romantic ideal of primitive simplicity.Less
This introduction proposes that Golden Age children’s authors and members of the cult of the child were at best ambivalent and often hostile to the growing cultural pressure to conceive of children as a separate species from adults. Rather than wholeheartedly embracing the “Child of Nature” paradigm, figures such as Lewis Carroll and Kenneth Grahame conceived of children as socially saturated, highly acculturated beings—and, unlike Dickens and other chroniclers of childhood writing primarily for adults, these and other children’s authors refused to assume that precocious exposure to the civilized world would doom the child to a depressing fate. Contemporary reviews of Golden Age children’s classics and 19th-century discourse about the cult of the child reveal that Golden Age commentators recognized this: ironically, the two groups most strongly faulted by recent critics for portraying childhood as a static, remote, and idealized state—children’s authors and members of the cult—were censured in their own time for failing to promote a Romantic ideal of primitive simplicity.
Victoria Ford Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813374
- eISBN:
- 9781496813411
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813374.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
The introduction to Between Generations establishes a thorough critical and literary framework for understanding the import and history of adult-child collaboration. It first provides a concise ...
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The introduction to Between Generations establishes a thorough critical and literary framework for understanding the import and history of adult-child collaboration. It first provides a concise account of children’s literature scholarship that takes on the vexed concept of child agency, from the 1980s to the present, and outlines the book’s methodology in locating and interpreting accounts of adult-child collaboration—a methodology that takes into account real and fictive collaborations as well as what the author calls hybrid collaborations. These hybrid collaborations are new models of authorship grounded in relationships between real adults and children, but adults fictionalize those relationships or describe them using language associated with powerful social constructions of childhood. Disentangling complex representations of collaborations—approaching them with the skepticism children’s literature demands but also with open-mindedness to the possibility of a child’s creative agency—is a complex but productive practice that is at the center of Between Generations.Less
The introduction to Between Generations establishes a thorough critical and literary framework for understanding the import and history of adult-child collaboration. It first provides a concise account of children’s literature scholarship that takes on the vexed concept of child agency, from the 1980s to the present, and outlines the book’s methodology in locating and interpreting accounts of adult-child collaboration—a methodology that takes into account real and fictive collaborations as well as what the author calls hybrid collaborations. These hybrid collaborations are new models of authorship grounded in relationships between real adults and children, but adults fictionalize those relationships or describe them using language associated with powerful social constructions of childhood. Disentangling complex representations of collaborations—approaching them with the skepticism children’s literature demands but also with open-mindedness to the possibility of a child’s creative agency—is a complex but productive practice that is at the center of Between Generations.
Victoria Ford Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813374
- eISBN:
- 9781496813411
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813374.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter examines Golden Age authors for children who invited young people into roles of authority through creative collaboration. It traces how Charles Dickens, William Brighty Rands, J. M. ...
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This chapter examines Golden Age authors for children who invited young people into roles of authority through creative collaboration. It traces how Charles Dickens, William Brighty Rands, J. M. Barrie, and others consulted children, real and imagined, as experts who might support or critique the expectations of adults, upending traditional adult-child relationships to entertain the possibility of child agency—especially in topsy-turvy children’s literature plots. While the upside-down logic of the child in charge was a quaint notion for many Victorians, a survey of real and imagined child authorities reveals that adults considered complete child autonomy undesirable or impossible. Authors, librarians, and book reviewers therefore did not cede power to children but negotiated shared authority—a partnership between generations in which adults recognize children as experts and adapt to their perspectives. Such partnerships introduce anxieties about how to access children’s voices in their most pristine form.Less
This chapter examines Golden Age authors for children who invited young people into roles of authority through creative collaboration. It traces how Charles Dickens, William Brighty Rands, J. M. Barrie, and others consulted children, real and imagined, as experts who might support or critique the expectations of adults, upending traditional adult-child relationships to entertain the possibility of child agency—especially in topsy-turvy children’s literature plots. While the upside-down logic of the child in charge was a quaint notion for many Victorians, a survey of real and imagined child authorities reveals that adults considered complete child autonomy undesirable or impossible. Authors, librarians, and book reviewers therefore did not cede power to children but negotiated shared authority—a partnership between generations in which adults recognize children as experts and adapt to their perspectives. Such partnerships introduce anxieties about how to access children’s voices in their most pristine form.
Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160658
- eISBN:
- 9781400852598
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160658.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter surveys the children's literature detailing genius-level exemplarity and performance. The association between genius and childhood was already implicit in the image of innate genius in ...
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This chapter surveys the children's literature detailing genius-level exemplarity and performance. The association between genius and childhood was already implicit in the image of innate genius in the eighteenth century, gearing it essentially to youth. From the start of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, child prodigies and the childhood of genius—though not necessarily the same thing—became the focus of new forms of attention that subjected them to particularly intense scrutiny in three major areas: children's literature, experimental psychology, and, in the middle of the twentieth century, the popular press. The chapter first examines Charles Baudelaire's claim that “genius is simply childhood recovered at will,” before turning to the subject of famous children as well as children's literature.Less
This chapter surveys the children's literature detailing genius-level exemplarity and performance. The association between genius and childhood was already implicit in the image of innate genius in the eighteenth century, gearing it essentially to youth. From the start of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, child prodigies and the childhood of genius—though not necessarily the same thing—became the focus of new forms of attention that subjected them to particularly intense scrutiny in three major areas: children's literature, experimental psychology, and, in the middle of the twentieth century, the popular press. The chapter first examines Charles Baudelaire's claim that “genius is simply childhood recovered at will,” before turning to the subject of famous children as well as children's literature.
Jack Zipes
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691160580
- eISBN:
- 9781400852581
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691160580.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Folk Literature
This book explores the legacy of the Brothers Grimm in Europe and North America, from the nineteenth century to the present. The book reveals how the Grimms came to play a pivotal and unusual role in ...
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This book explores the legacy of the Brothers Grimm in Europe and North America, from the nineteenth century to the present. The book reveals how the Grimms came to play a pivotal and unusual role in the evolution of Western folklore and in the history of the most significant cultural genre in the world—the fairy tale. Folklorists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm sought to discover and preserve a rich abundance of stories emanating from an oral tradition, and encouraged friends, colleagues, and strangers to gather and share these tales. As a result, hundreds of thousands of wonderful folk and fairy tales poured into books throughout Europe and have kept coming. The book looks at the transformation of the Grimms' tales into children's literature, the Americanization of the tales, the “Grimm” aspects of contemporary tales, and the tales' utopian impulses. It shows that the Grimms were not the first scholars to turn their attention to folk tales, but were vital in expanding readership and setting the high standards for folk-tale collecting that continue through the current era. The book concludes with a look at contemporary adaptations of the tales and raises questions about authenticity, target audience, and consumerism. The book examines the lasting universal influence of two brothers and their collected tales on today's storytelling world.Less
This book explores the legacy of the Brothers Grimm in Europe and North America, from the nineteenth century to the present. The book reveals how the Grimms came to play a pivotal and unusual role in the evolution of Western folklore and in the history of the most significant cultural genre in the world—the fairy tale. Folklorists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm sought to discover and preserve a rich abundance of stories emanating from an oral tradition, and encouraged friends, colleagues, and strangers to gather and share these tales. As a result, hundreds of thousands of wonderful folk and fairy tales poured into books throughout Europe and have kept coming. The book looks at the transformation of the Grimms' tales into children's literature, the Americanization of the tales, the “Grimm” aspects of contemporary tales, and the tales' utopian impulses. It shows that the Grimms were not the first scholars to turn their attention to folk tales, but were vital in expanding readership and setting the high standards for folk-tale collecting that continue through the current era. The book concludes with a look at contemporary adaptations of the tales and raises questions about authenticity, target audience, and consumerism. The book examines the lasting universal influence of two brothers and their collected tales on today's storytelling world.
Ian Kinane
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620047
- eISBN:
- 9781789629613
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620047.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter reconsiders literary didacticism by demonstrating the ways in which the Robinsonade novel for young readers has evolved from the anxious moralizing of earlier examples into a more ...
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This chapter reconsiders literary didacticism by demonstrating the ways in which the Robinsonade novel for young readers has evolved from the anxious moralizing of earlier examples into a more socially instructive vehicle for engaging young readers with contemporary socio-political and cultural issues, such as gender politics and global post-colonial concerns. Unlike much scholarly material on the Robinsonade genre, which tends to concentrate on texts produced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the focus of this chapter is on post-1900 works of Robinsonade fiction. The chapter also embraces a much wider definition of what has historically been understood within the Robinsonade as an ‘island’ or ‘islanded’ location.Less
This chapter reconsiders literary didacticism by demonstrating the ways in which the Robinsonade novel for young readers has evolved from the anxious moralizing of earlier examples into a more socially instructive vehicle for engaging young readers with contemporary socio-political and cultural issues, such as gender politics and global post-colonial concerns. Unlike much scholarly material on the Robinsonade genre, which tends to concentrate on texts produced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the focus of this chapter is on post-1900 works of Robinsonade fiction. The chapter also embraces a much wider definition of what has historically been understood within the Robinsonade as an ‘island’ or ‘islanded’ location.
Paul Turner
- Published in print:
- 1990
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122395
- eISBN:
- 9780191671401
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122395.003.0020
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This large section of the period’s output has of late been much researched; but two broad statements made by experts in the field need taking with a pinch of salt. One is that most of these books are ...
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This large section of the period’s output has of late been much researched; but two broad statements made by experts in the field need taking with a pinch of salt. One is that most of these books are not ‘literature’, only interesting social documents. The average standard of writing was in fact quite high, perhaps because the authors felt obliged to express themselves briefly and simply. They showed, as a class, no less imagination than contemporary poets or novelists, and were often more skilled at manipulating their readers’ emotions. Their observation of adult as well as juvenile behaviour was generally acute, and their criticism of life was not necessarily superficial or immature. Children’s literature developed during the nineteenth century from books intended simply to entertain the young.Less
This large section of the period’s output has of late been much researched; but two broad statements made by experts in the field need taking with a pinch of salt. One is that most of these books are not ‘literature’, only interesting social documents. The average standard of writing was in fact quite high, perhaps because the authors felt obliged to express themselves briefly and simply. They showed, as a class, no less imagination than contemporary poets or novelists, and were often more skilled at manipulating their readers’ emotions. Their observation of adult as well as juvenile behaviour was generally acute, and their criticism of life was not necessarily superficial or immature. Children’s literature developed during the nineteenth century from books intended simply to entertain the young.
Roberta Seelinger Trites
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813800
- eISBN:
- 9781496813848
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813800.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Twenty-First Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature employs methodologies from material feminism to demonstrate how feminist thinking has influenced literature for the young in the ...
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Twenty-First Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature employs methodologies from material feminism to demonstrate how feminist thinking has influenced literature for the young in the last two decades. Material feminism provides people with ways of thinking about the interactions among discourse, embodiment, technology, the environment, cognition, and the ethics of caring. This book thus applies the principles behind material feminism and interrelated manifestations of feminism (such as Critical Race Theory and ecofeminism) to texts written for the young to demonstrate how shifting cultural perceptions of feminism affect what is happening both in publishing for the young and in the academic study of children’s and adolescent literature.
The work begins with a specific focus on how language and the material interact before moving to an examination of race as an intersectionally-lived material phenomenon and a social construction. How embodied individuals interact with the environment is explored through ecofeminism and the dystopic; how people interact with each other involves romance, sexuality, and feminist ethics. In other words, the structure of the book moves from examinations of the individual to examinations of the individual in social groups, the individual and the environment, and the individual within relationships.
Overall, the goal of this work is to interrogate how material feminism can expand our understanding of materiality, maturation, and gender—especially girlhood—as represented in narratives for preadolescents and adolescents.Less
Twenty-First Century Feminisms in Children’s and Adolescent Literature employs methodologies from material feminism to demonstrate how feminist thinking has influenced literature for the young in the last two decades. Material feminism provides people with ways of thinking about the interactions among discourse, embodiment, technology, the environment, cognition, and the ethics of caring. This book thus applies the principles behind material feminism and interrelated manifestations of feminism (such as Critical Race Theory and ecofeminism) to texts written for the young to demonstrate how shifting cultural perceptions of feminism affect what is happening both in publishing for the young and in the academic study of children’s and adolescent literature.
The work begins with a specific focus on how language and the material interact before moving to an examination of race as an intersectionally-lived material phenomenon and a social construction. How embodied individuals interact with the environment is explored through ecofeminism and the dystopic; how people interact with each other involves romance, sexuality, and feminist ethics. In other words, the structure of the book moves from examinations of the individual to examinations of the individual in social groups, the individual and the environment, and the individual within relationships.
Overall, the goal of this work is to interrogate how material feminism can expand our understanding of materiality, maturation, and gender—especially girlhood—as represented in narratives for preadolescents and adolescents.
Dafna Zur
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781503601680
- eISBN:
- 9781503603110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503601680.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Children’s literature in Korea emerged in the early twentieth century under Japanese colonial rule. This literature was marked by what Korean writers called the child-heart, the conflation of nature ...
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Children’s literature in Korea emerged in the early twentieth century under Japanese colonial rule. This literature was marked by what Korean writers called the child-heart, the conflation of nature and culture whose shaping and interaction was deeply implicated in colonial modernity. The Introduction argues that what made children’s literature possible was a combination of internal and external factors, including influences from Japan and educational and psychological theories of childrearing from the West. Children’s literature was recognized as important enough to warrant censorship, and as key to shaping ideologies of gender and politics. The movement of the child from the periphery of culture to the center and the interest in visual culture combined to produce a range of visually compelling magazines for children. Writers conveyed their visions of the past and present, and their future aspirations at a time of growing uncertainty about the fate of the Korean nation.Less
Children’s literature in Korea emerged in the early twentieth century under Japanese colonial rule. This literature was marked by what Korean writers called the child-heart, the conflation of nature and culture whose shaping and interaction was deeply implicated in colonial modernity. The Introduction argues that what made children’s literature possible was a combination of internal and external factors, including influences from Japan and educational and psychological theories of childrearing from the West. Children’s literature was recognized as important enough to warrant censorship, and as key to shaping ideologies of gender and politics. The movement of the child from the periphery of culture to the center and the interest in visual culture combined to produce a range of visually compelling magazines for children. Writers conveyed their visions of the past and present, and their future aspirations at a time of growing uncertainty about the fate of the Korean nation.
Victoria Ford Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813374
- eISBN:
- 9781496813411
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813374.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Between Generations recuperates a tradition of adult-child collaboration in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British children’s literature and culture, charting the emergence of new models of ...
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Between Generations recuperates a tradition of adult-child collaboration in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British children’s literature and culture, charting the emergence of new models of authorship and a growing cultural imperative to recognize the young as active, creative agents. The book examines the intergenerational partnerships that generated pivotal texts from the Golden Age of children’s literature, from “The Pied Piper” to Peter Pan, and in doing so challenges popular critical narratives that read actual young people solely as social constructs or passive recipients of texts. The spectrum of adult-child partnerships included within this book’s chapters make clear that the boundary between fictive collaborations and lived partnerships was not firm but that, instead, imaginative and material practices were mutually constitutive. Adults’ partnerships with young auditors, writers, illustrators, reviewers, and co-conspirators reveal that the agentic, creative child was not only a figure but also an actor, vital to authorial practice. These collaborations were part of a larger investigation of the limits and possibilities of child agency taking place in a range of discourses and cultural venues, from education reform to psychology to librarianship. Throughout, the book considers the many Victorian writers and thinkers, from Robert Louis Stevenson to Friedrich Froebel, who question the assumed authority of adults, who write about children as both passive and subversive subjects, and who self-consciously negotiate, alongside real children, the ideological and ethical difficulties of listening to and representing children’s perspectives.Less
Between Generations recuperates a tradition of adult-child collaboration in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British children’s literature and culture, charting the emergence of new models of authorship and a growing cultural imperative to recognize the young as active, creative agents. The book examines the intergenerational partnerships that generated pivotal texts from the Golden Age of children’s literature, from “The Pied Piper” to Peter Pan, and in doing so challenges popular critical narratives that read actual young people solely as social constructs or passive recipients of texts. The spectrum of adult-child partnerships included within this book’s chapters make clear that the boundary between fictive collaborations and lived partnerships was not firm but that, instead, imaginative and material practices were mutually constitutive. Adults’ partnerships with young auditors, writers, illustrators, reviewers, and co-conspirators reveal that the agentic, creative child was not only a figure but also an actor, vital to authorial practice. These collaborations were part of a larger investigation of the limits and possibilities of child agency taking place in a range of discourses and cultural venues, from education reform to psychology to librarianship. Throughout, the book considers the many Victorian writers and thinkers, from Robert Louis Stevenson to Friedrich Froebel, who question the assumed authority of adults, who write about children as both passive and subversive subjects, and who self-consciously negotiate, alongside real children, the ideological and ethical difficulties of listening to and representing children’s perspectives.
Victoria Ford Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813374
- eISBN:
- 9781496813411
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813374.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter explores how Golden Age authors partnered with children in storyteller-auditor collaboration and represented those partnerships in their fictions. Moving from translations of the Grimms’ ...
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This chapter explores how Golden Age authors partnered with children in storyteller-auditor collaboration and represented those partnerships in their fictions. Moving from translations of the Grimms’ fairy tales to popular story collections by Mary Molesworth, Mary Cowden Clarke, and Margaret Gatty, the chapter reveals how storytelling scenes—both real gatherings that inspired these authors and fictional and illustrated moments of narration in their texts—were enriched by intergenerational collaboration based on active listening and critical response and provided opportunities for child agency. These creative partnerships are best read alongside shifting understandings of the relationship between children and language, and therefore the chapter traces theories of children’s language acquisition from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, from Rousseau’s Émile to establishment of the field of Child Study at the fin-de-siècle.Less
This chapter explores how Golden Age authors partnered with children in storyteller-auditor collaboration and represented those partnerships in their fictions. Moving from translations of the Grimms’ fairy tales to popular story collections by Mary Molesworth, Mary Cowden Clarke, and Margaret Gatty, the chapter reveals how storytelling scenes—both real gatherings that inspired these authors and fictional and illustrated moments of narration in their texts—were enriched by intergenerational collaboration based on active listening and critical response and provided opportunities for child agency. These creative partnerships are best read alongside shifting understandings of the relationship between children and language, and therefore the chapter traces theories of children’s language acquisition from the late eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, from Rousseau’s Émile to establishment of the field of Child Study at the fin-de-siècle.
Toby B. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198075547
- eISBN:
- 9780199082056
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198075547.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Sikhism
This chapter describes the educational role of Sikh children’s literature (such as the Amar Chitra Katha comic books) and its influence on the development of a Sikh identity among the young. It ...
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This chapter describes the educational role of Sikh children’s literature (such as the Amar Chitra Katha comic books) and its influence on the development of a Sikh identity among the young. It concentrates on the material aspects of this literature—the books, their artistic depictions, and the specific manners chosen to express Sikhism—that condition the reception of the Sikh tradition by a child, even by one too young to read. The examples presented provide warnings against going off the moral course set by the Gurus. The concept of the Khalsa as a normative identity is presented so ubiquitously that no child can be oblivious of it. Sikhism is expressed through the use of cross-cultural motifs (such as the use of the overtly Christian ‘halo’, the motif of Madonna and Child etc.) that bring Sikhism closer to children growing up in the West. Since the situation for Sikhs in twenty-first-century America is far different than it was thirty years ago, the author points to over-simplification in this literature as being delimiting, and how the continued use of these texts—and the implications of their use—needs to be examined more critically.Less
This chapter describes the educational role of Sikh children’s literature (such as the Amar Chitra Katha comic books) and its influence on the development of a Sikh identity among the young. It concentrates on the material aspects of this literature—the books, their artistic depictions, and the specific manners chosen to express Sikhism—that condition the reception of the Sikh tradition by a child, even by one too young to read. The examples presented provide warnings against going off the moral course set by the Gurus. The concept of the Khalsa as a normative identity is presented so ubiquitously that no child can be oblivious of it. Sikhism is expressed through the use of cross-cultural motifs (such as the use of the overtly Christian ‘halo’, the motif of Madonna and Child etc.) that bring Sikhism closer to children growing up in the West. Since the situation for Sikhs in twenty-first-century America is far different than it was thirty years ago, the author points to over-simplification in this literature as being delimiting, and how the continued use of these texts—and the implications of their use—needs to be examined more critically.
Victoria Ford Smith
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496813374
- eISBN:
- 9781496813411
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496813374.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Between Generations argues that the Golden Age of children’s literature was marked by critical interest in child agency, creating ideal cultural conditions for the emergence of intergenerational ...
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Between Generations argues that the Golden Age of children’s literature was marked by critical interest in child agency, creating ideal cultural conditions for the emergence of intergenerational collaboration. However, an investment in children as creative actors persists long past the nineteenth century. This conclusion details two twentieth-century collaborations: the professional partnership among Arthur Ransome, Katharine Hull, and Pamela Whitlock and the photography collaboration between photojournalist Timothy Archibald and his son. These examples underscore the utility of collaboration as a critical lens for present-day scholars of the Victorian period and of childhood more generally. Collaboration is a valuable analytic that suspends in productive dialogue the tension between real children and figurations of childhood. It not only reframes the Golden Age—redefining the roles adults and children fulfill in the creation of children’s literature and in the construction of childhood—but also expands how scholars might think about adult-child relationships writ large.Less
Between Generations argues that the Golden Age of children’s literature was marked by critical interest in child agency, creating ideal cultural conditions for the emergence of intergenerational collaboration. However, an investment in children as creative actors persists long past the nineteenth century. This conclusion details two twentieth-century collaborations: the professional partnership among Arthur Ransome, Katharine Hull, and Pamela Whitlock and the photography collaboration between photojournalist Timothy Archibald and his son. These examples underscore the utility of collaboration as a critical lens for present-day scholars of the Victorian period and of childhood more generally. Collaboration is a valuable analytic that suspends in productive dialogue the tension between real children and figurations of childhood. It not only reframes the Golden Age—redefining the roles adults and children fulfill in the creation of children’s literature and in the construction of childhood—but also expands how scholars might think about adult-child relationships writ large.
Ross McKibbin
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206729
- eISBN:
- 9780191677298
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206729.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Social History
This chapter deals with the community of language — what people read and how they spoke. It looks at the development of a middlebrow literary culture and examines its social and political ...
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This chapter deals with the community of language — what people read and how they spoke. It looks at the development of a middlebrow literary culture and examines its social and political significance. It also considers the genre of the popular romance, such as Ruby M. Ayres and Mills and Boon, and more overtly working-class literature: ‘erotic bloods’, ‘Yank mags’, and sporting and crime novels. It notes how important gender and class was in determining what kinds of fiction people read. It discusses children's literature and the development of the press and mass-circulation periodicals. Finally, the chapter looks at the spoken language, the extent of Americanisation of vocabulary and idiom, working-class attitudes to language, the attempts to establish a ‘correct’ speech, and the reasons why that failed.Less
This chapter deals with the community of language — what people read and how they spoke. It looks at the development of a middlebrow literary culture and examines its social and political significance. It also considers the genre of the popular romance, such as Ruby M. Ayres and Mills and Boon, and more overtly working-class literature: ‘erotic bloods’, ‘Yank mags’, and sporting and crime novels. It notes how important gender and class was in determining what kinds of fiction people read. It discusses children's literature and the development of the press and mass-circulation periodicals. Finally, the chapter looks at the spoken language, the extent of Americanisation of vocabulary and idiom, working-class attitudes to language, the attempts to establish a ‘correct’ speech, and the reasons why that failed.
Jonathan Todres, Sarah Higinbotham, and Carol Bellamy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780190213343
- eISBN:
- 9780190213367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190213343.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Public International Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical foundations of this book, drawing on children’s rights law (in particular, the Convention on the Rights of the Child), human rights law, human rights education ...
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Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical foundations of this book, drawing on children’s rights law (in particular, the Convention on the Rights of the Child), human rights law, human rights education research, and literary theory about children’s books and reading in the lives of children. The chapter explores the role of children’s literature in disseminating human rights principles and reveals children’s literature as a rich source of rights discourse, one that is accessible even to young children. J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan provides a case study. The authors also discuss how children’s literature can be a powerful means of explicating human rights norms and educating children on their own rights and their responsibilities toward others in a democratic society.Less
Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical foundations of this book, drawing on children’s rights law (in particular, the Convention on the Rights of the Child), human rights law, human rights education research, and literary theory about children’s books and reading in the lives of children. The chapter explores the role of children’s literature in disseminating human rights principles and reveals children’s literature as a rich source of rights discourse, one that is accessible even to young children. J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan provides a case study. The authors also discuss how children’s literature can be a powerful means of explicating human rights norms and educating children on their own rights and their responsibilities toward others in a democratic society.
Jessica R. McCort
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496806444
- eISBN:
- 9781496806482
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496806444.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The introduction begins the book’s discussion of why some children and young adults are drawn to horror. It attempts to define the term “horror,” especially in relation to children’s literature and ...
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The introduction begins the book’s discussion of why some children and young adults are drawn to horror. It attempts to define the term “horror,” especially in relation to children’s literature and culture, and seeks to consider the ways in which frightening elements emerge in children’s literature and culture. It also provides an overview of the essays included in the volume and how they are in conversation with one another.Less
The introduction begins the book’s discussion of why some children and young adults are drawn to horror. It attempts to define the term “horror,” especially in relation to children’s literature and culture, and seeks to consider the ways in which frightening elements emerge in children’s literature and culture. It also provides an overview of the essays included in the volume and how they are in conversation with one another.
Melissa Dickson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474443647
- eISBN:
- 9781474477055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474443647.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on acts of reading, and on the nature and circumstances of childhood encounters with the Arabian Nights in Britain, both as a collection of narratives and as a series of objects ...
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This chapter focuses on acts of reading, and on the nature and circumstances of childhood encounters with the Arabian Nights in Britain, both as a collection of narratives and as a series of objects such as books, pictures, and toy theatres. Despite their association with the innocent joys of childhood throughout the nineteenth century, the tales of the Arabian Nights were neither written nor designed for children. It was their abiding attraction to children that led to their designation as children’s literature, and also to their continued use as metaphors for adult fantasies and constructions of childhood. As the time and space of childhood were increasingly associated with the time and space of these Oriental tales, the Arabian Nights came to operate not only as a souvenir of childhood, but as metonymic of childhood itself: exciting, unpredictable, and culturally and temporally other.Less
This chapter focuses on acts of reading, and on the nature and circumstances of childhood encounters with the Arabian Nights in Britain, both as a collection of narratives and as a series of objects such as books, pictures, and toy theatres. Despite their association with the innocent joys of childhood throughout the nineteenth century, the tales of the Arabian Nights were neither written nor designed for children. It was their abiding attraction to children that led to their designation as children’s literature, and also to their continued use as metaphors for adult fantasies and constructions of childhood. As the time and space of childhood were increasingly associated with the time and space of these Oriental tales, the Arabian Nights came to operate not only as a souvenir of childhood, but as metonymic of childhood itself: exciting, unpredictable, and culturally and temporally other.
