Joseph W. Campbell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496824721
- eISBN:
- 9781496824776
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496824721.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
The Order and the Other is a call to reexamine the relationship between dystopian literature and science fiction by thinking about the work that each genre does on and for the reader. The author ...
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The Order and the Other is a call to reexamine the relationship between dystopian literature and science fiction by thinking about the work that each genre does on and for the reader. The author believes that this is especially necessary in regards to dystopian literature intended for adolescents. Now that the cultural boom of YA Dystopian texts is over, this book attempts to understand that boom by placing dystopian works into the larger context of belonging to literary history of dystopian works. It attempts to help readers see how surveillance and power form the way that not only the characters within the films or books think about themselves, but also how it shapes the readers, as well. It also helps show that the surveillance culture and state that we see within such texts is not dependent on science fiction genre structures to exist. Finally, the book examines the most recent efforts to understand the genre and suggests ways inquiry into the genre might go forward.Less
The Order and the Other is a call to reexamine the relationship between dystopian literature and science fiction by thinking about the work that each genre does on and for the reader. The author believes that this is especially necessary in regards to dystopian literature intended for adolescents. Now that the cultural boom of YA Dystopian texts is over, this book attempts to understand that boom by placing dystopian works into the larger context of belonging to literary history of dystopian works. It attempts to help readers see how surveillance and power form the way that not only the characters within the films or books think about themselves, but also how it shapes the readers, as well. It also helps show that the surveillance culture and state that we see within such texts is not dependent on science fiction genre structures to exist. Finally, the book examines the most recent efforts to understand the genre and suggests ways inquiry into the genre might go forward.
Jessica R. McCort (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496806444
- eISBN:
- 9781496806482
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496806444.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture is a collection of essays that seeks to consider gothic horror texts for children with the respect such texts deserve, weighing the ...
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Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture is a collection of essays that seeks to consider gothic horror texts for children with the respect such texts deserve, weighing the multitude of benefits they can provide for young readers and viewers. It refuses to write off the horror genre as campy, trite, or deforming, instead recognizing that many of the children’s books and films categorized as “scary” are among those most widely read/viewed by children and young adults. It also considers how adult horror has been domesticated by children’s literature and culture, with authors and screenwriters turning that which was once utterly horrifying into safe, funny, and delightful books and films, along with the impetus behind such re-envisioning of the adult horror novel or film as something appropriate for the young. Especially today, when dark novels, shows, and films targeted toward children and young adults are proliferating with wild abandon, understanding the methods by which such texts have traditionally operated, as well as how those methods have been challenged, abandoned, and appropriated in recent years, becomes all the more crucial.Less
Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture is a collection of essays that seeks to consider gothic horror texts for children with the respect such texts deserve, weighing the multitude of benefits they can provide for young readers and viewers. It refuses to write off the horror genre as campy, trite, or deforming, instead recognizing that many of the children’s books and films categorized as “scary” are among those most widely read/viewed by children and young adults. It also considers how adult horror has been domesticated by children’s literature and culture, with authors and screenwriters turning that which was once utterly horrifying into safe, funny, and delightful books and films, along with the impetus behind such re-envisioning of the adult horror novel or film as something appropriate for the young. Especially today, when dark novels, shows, and films targeted toward children and young adults are proliferating with wild abandon, understanding the methods by which such texts have traditionally operated, as well as how those methods have been challenged, abandoned, and appropriated in recent years, becomes all the more crucial.
Gwen Athene Tarbox and Michelle Ann Abate
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496811677
- eISBN:
- 9781496811714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496811677.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the varied landscape of contemporary children's and young adult literature. The closing decades of the twentieth century and the opening years of ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the varied landscape of contemporary children's and young adult literature. The closing decades of the twentieth century and the opening years of the new millennium witnessed profound literary, artistic, and commercial changes in children's and young adult literature. Arguably one of the most significant transformations that took place during this period was the resurgence of comics geared toward a youth readership. The chapter then considers scholarship on children's and young adult comics, suggesting that despite the popularity and influence enjoyed by children's and young adult graphic novels, contemporary developments in the genre have received surprisingly scant critical attention. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the varied landscape of contemporary children's and young adult literature. The closing decades of the twentieth century and the opening years of the new millennium witnessed profound literary, artistic, and commercial changes in children's and young adult literature. Arguably one of the most significant transformations that took place during this period was the resurgence of comics geared toward a youth readership. The chapter then considers scholarship on children's and young adult comics, suggesting that despite the popularity and influence enjoyed by children's and young adult graphic novels, contemporary developments in the genre have received surprisingly scant critical attention. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Derritt Mason
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496830982
- eISBN:
- 9781496831033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496830982.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter traces the emergence of queer themes and characters in young adult literature, as well as critical commentary on queer YA, to demonstrate how anxiety is the affective form that best ...
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This chapter traces the emergence of queer themes and characters in young adult literature, as well as critical commentary on queer YA, to demonstrate how anxiety is the affective form that best characterizes this subgenre of children’s literature. Mason argues that, in the long tradition of children’s literature criticism, queer YA criticism functions as an illuminating index of anxieties about how adults address queer youth. This chapter draws on sociological work on adolescence, as well as psychoanalytic theorists Adam Phillips and Julia Kristeva, to illustrate how adolescence and young adult literature are themselves the products of adult anxiety. Anxiety characterizes the affective economy through which queer young adult literature circulates, Mason argues, while itself evincing a queer temporality that places delay and forward-oriented growth in tension with one another. Overall, Mason demonstrates the utility of children’s literature and its theories for thinking more broadly about adult concerns and anxieties.Less
This chapter traces the emergence of queer themes and characters in young adult literature, as well as critical commentary on queer YA, to demonstrate how anxiety is the affective form that best characterizes this subgenre of children’s literature. Mason argues that, in the long tradition of children’s literature criticism, queer YA criticism functions as an illuminating index of anxieties about how adults address queer youth. This chapter draws on sociological work on adolescence, as well as psychoanalytic theorists Adam Phillips and Julia Kristeva, to illustrate how adolescence and young adult literature are themselves the products of adult anxiety. Anxiety characterizes the affective economy through which queer young adult literature circulates, Mason argues, while itself evincing a queer temporality that places delay and forward-oriented growth in tension with one another. Overall, Mason demonstrates the utility of children’s literature and its theories for thinking more broadly about adult concerns and anxieties.
Julie Passanante Elman
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479841424
- eISBN:
- 9781479806294
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479841424.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter focuses on the young adult (YA) literature market. Published largely in the 1980s as part of a long history of sentimental literature about illness for women, these books catered to teen ...
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This chapter focuses on the young adult (YA) literature market. Published largely in the 1980s as part of a long history of sentimental literature about illness for women, these books catered to teen girl readers by featuring love stories about teen girls and boys with life-threatening illnesses. The books issued emotional challenges to teen readers through yet more representations of teens as physically imperiled patients who needed to be overcome and rehabilitate. Surveying the work of the best-selling YA authors Lurlene McDaniel and Jean Ferris, this chapter analyzes the affective labor of sadness as a crucial growth-inducing emotion that tragic disability narratives are more likely to convey.Less
This chapter focuses on the young adult (YA) literature market. Published largely in the 1980s as part of a long history of sentimental literature about illness for women, these books catered to teen girl readers by featuring love stories about teen girls and boys with life-threatening illnesses. The books issued emotional challenges to teen readers through yet more representations of teens as physically imperiled patients who needed to be overcome and rehabilitate. Surveying the work of the best-selling YA authors Lurlene McDaniel and Jean Ferris, this chapter analyzes the affective labor of sadness as a crucial growth-inducing emotion that tragic disability narratives are more likely to convey.
Derritt Mason
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496830982
- eISBN:
- 9781496831033
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496830982.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This book considers the recent surge in queer young adult literature publishing and argues that this explosion of queer representation has prompted new forms of longstanding cultural anxieties about ...
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This book considers the recent surge in queer young adult literature publishing and argues that this explosion of queer representation has prompted new forms of longstanding cultural anxieties about adolescent sexuality. In particular, critics of queer texts for young people seem concerned with the following questions: what makes for a good “coming out” story? Will increased queer representation in popular culture teach adolescents the right lessons, and help queer youth live better, happier lives? What if these stories harm young people instead of helping them? Although these concerns spring from a particular contemporary moment, Mason illustrates how the history of adolescence is itself a history of anxiety, and how young adult literature emerged, in part, as a way of managing various cultural and social anxieties.
Mason suggests that “queer YA” is usefully understood as a body of trans-media texts with blurry boundaries, one that coheres around affect—specifically, anxiety—instead of content. To clarify this point, Mason draws on criticism about a range of texts for and about queer adolescents, including an assortment of young adult books; Caper in the Castro, the first-ever queer video game; online fan communities; and popular television series Glee and Big Mouth. Themes that generate the most anxiety about adolescent culture, Mason argues—queer visibility, risk-taking, HIV/AIDS, dystopia and horror, the promise that “It Gets Better” and the threat that it might not—challenge us to rethink how we read and engage with young people’s media.Less
This book considers the recent surge in queer young adult literature publishing and argues that this explosion of queer representation has prompted new forms of longstanding cultural anxieties about adolescent sexuality. In particular, critics of queer texts for young people seem concerned with the following questions: what makes for a good “coming out” story? Will increased queer representation in popular culture teach adolescents the right lessons, and help queer youth live better, happier lives? What if these stories harm young people instead of helping them? Although these concerns spring from a particular contemporary moment, Mason illustrates how the history of adolescence is itself a history of anxiety, and how young adult literature emerged, in part, as a way of managing various cultural and social anxieties.
Mason suggests that “queer YA” is usefully understood as a body of trans-media texts with blurry boundaries, one that coheres around affect—specifically, anxiety—instead of content. To clarify this point, Mason draws on criticism about a range of texts for and about queer adolescents, including an assortment of young adult books; Caper in the Castro, the first-ever queer video game; online fan communities; and popular television series Glee and Big Mouth. Themes that generate the most anxiety about adolescent culture, Mason argues—queer visibility, risk-taking, HIV/AIDS, dystopia and horror, the promise that “It Gets Better” and the threat that it might not—challenge us to rethink how we read and engage with young people’s media.
Trevor Boffone and Cristina Herrera (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496827456
- eISBN:
- 9781496827500
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496827456.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx Young Adult Literature signals a much-needed approach to the study of Latinx young adult literature. This edited volume addresses themes ...
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Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx Young Adult Literature signals a much-needed approach to the study of Latinx young adult literature. This edited volume addresses themes of outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx children’s and young adult literature. The collection insists that to understand Latinx youth identities, it is necessary to shed light on outsiders within an already marginalized ethnic group: nerds, goths, geeks, freaks, and others who might not fit within Latinx popular cultural paradigms such as the chola and cholo, identities that are ever-present in films, television, and the Internet. In Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks, the through-line of being an outsider intersects with discussions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The volume addresses the following questions. What constitutes “outsider” identities? In what ways are these “outsider” identities shaped by mainstream myths around Latinx young people, particularly with the common stereotype of the struggling, underachieving inner city Latinx teen? How do these young adults reclaim what it means to be an “outsider,” “weirdo,” “nerd,” or “goth,” and how can the reclamation of these marginalized identities expand much-needed conversations around authenticity and narrow understandings of what constitutes Latinx identity? How does Chicanx/Latinx children’s and YA literature represent, challenge, question, or expand discussions surrounding identities that have been deemed outsiders/outliers?Less
Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx Young Adult Literature signals a much-needed approach to the study of Latinx young adult literature. This edited volume addresses themes of outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx children’s and young adult literature. The collection insists that to understand Latinx youth identities, it is necessary to shed light on outsiders within an already marginalized ethnic group: nerds, goths, geeks, freaks, and others who might not fit within Latinx popular cultural paradigms such as the chola and cholo, identities that are ever-present in films, television, and the Internet. In Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks, the through-line of being an outsider intersects with discussions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The volume addresses the following questions. What constitutes “outsider” identities? In what ways are these “outsider” identities shaped by mainstream myths around Latinx young people, particularly with the common stereotype of the struggling, underachieving inner city Latinx teen? How do these young adults reclaim what it means to be an “outsider,” “weirdo,” “nerd,” or “goth,” and how can the reclamation of these marginalized identities expand much-needed conversations around authenticity and narrow understandings of what constitutes Latinx identity? How does Chicanx/Latinx children’s and YA literature represent, challenge, question, or expand discussions surrounding identities that have been deemed outsiders/outliers?
Rebekah Fitzsimmons and Casey Alane Wilson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496827135
- eISBN:
- 9781496827180
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496827135.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
While the critical and popular attention afforded to twenty-first century young adult literature has exponentially increased in recent years, the texts selected for discussion in both classrooms and ...
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While the critical and popular attention afforded to twenty-first century young adult literature has exponentially increased in recent years, the texts selected for discussion in both classrooms and scholarship has remained static and small. Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hate U Give dominate conversations among scholars and critics—but they are far from the only texts in need of analysis.
Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction offers a necessary remedy to this limited perspective by bringing together a series of essays about the many subgenres, themes, and character types that have been overlooked and under-discussed until now. The collection tackles a diverse range of subjects—modern updates to the marriage plot; fairy tale retellings in dystopian settings; stories of extrajudicial police killings and racial justice—but is united by a commitment to exploring the large-scale generic and theoretical structures at work in each set of texts. As a collection, Beyond the Blockbusters is an exciting glimpse of a field that continues to grow and change even as it explodes with popularity, and would make an excellent addition to the library of any scholar, instructor, or reader of young adult literature.Less
While the critical and popular attention afforded to twenty-first century young adult literature has exponentially increased in recent years, the texts selected for discussion in both classrooms and scholarship has remained static and small. Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Fault in Our Stars, and The Hate U Give dominate conversations among scholars and critics—but they are far from the only texts in need of analysis.
Beyond the Blockbusters: Themes and Trends in Contemporary Young Adult Fiction offers a necessary remedy to this limited perspective by bringing together a series of essays about the many subgenres, themes, and character types that have been overlooked and under-discussed until now. The collection tackles a diverse range of subjects—modern updates to the marriage plot; fairy tale retellings in dystopian settings; stories of extrajudicial police killings and racial justice—but is united by a commitment to exploring the large-scale generic and theoretical structures at work in each set of texts. As a collection, Beyond the Blockbusters is an exciting glimpse of a field that continues to grow and change even as it explodes with popularity, and would make an excellent addition to the library of any scholar, instructor, or reader of young adult literature.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter four extends and complicates Gérard Genette’s idea of the peritext—the sidebars, captions, footnotes, introduction, notes for teachers, and other aspects of textual apparatus—to look at how ...
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Chapter four extends and complicates Gérard Genette’s idea of the peritext—the sidebars, captions, footnotes, introduction, notes for teachers, and other aspects of textual apparatus—to look at how nonfiction employs these devices to centralize debate or push it to the marginsLess
Chapter four extends and complicates Gérard Genette’s idea of the peritext—the sidebars, captions, footnotes, introduction, notes for teachers, and other aspects of textual apparatus—to look at how nonfiction employs these devices to centralize debate or push it to the margins
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Clearly lays out a series of techniques for analysis and then applies and nuances those techniques through extensive close readings and case studies
Clearly lays out a series of techniques for analysis and then applies and nuances those techniques through extensive close readings and case studies
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The first book to theorize children’s nonfiction from a literary perspective, A Literature of Questions explains how the genre speaks in unique ways to its young readers, inviting them to the project ...
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The first book to theorize children’s nonfiction from a literary perspective, A Literature of Questions explains how the genre speaks in unique ways to its young readers, inviting them to the project of understanding. It lays out a series of techniques for analysis, then applies and nuances through extensive close readings and case studies of books from the past half century.Less
The first book to theorize children’s nonfiction from a literary perspective, A Literature of Questions explains how the genre speaks in unique ways to its young readers, inviting them to the project of understanding. It lays out a series of techniques for analysis, then applies and nuances through extensive close readings and case studies of books from the past half century.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
The Conclusion anticipates the argument that children are not capable of the critical engagement to which my theory argues that they are being invited. The final pages of Humble Truths offer evidence ...
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The Conclusion anticipates the argument that children are not capable of the critical engagement to which my theory argues that they are being invited. The final pages of Humble Truths offer evidence from across many countries and disciplines that children are more than capable of the kind of nuanced, careful engagement to which contemporary children’s nonfiction increasingly invites them. I end by pointing out how adults—authors, teachers, parents, scholars, and caregivers—can see to it that children’s books invite that sort of engagement, and I make an argument that we should.Less
The Conclusion anticipates the argument that children are not capable of the critical engagement to which my theory argues that they are being invited. The final pages of Humble Truths offer evidence from across many countries and disciplines that children are more than capable of the kind of nuanced, careful engagement to which contemporary children’s nonfiction increasingly invites them. I end by pointing out how adults—authors, teachers, parents, scholars, and caregivers—can see to it that children’s books invite that sort of engagement, and I make an argument that we should.
Derritt Mason
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496830982
- eISBN:
- 9781496831033
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496830982.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
This chapter puts into conversation two temporally and formally distant texts: C.M. Ralph’s video game Caper in the Castro, created during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1989 and recently restored ...
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This chapter puts into conversation two temporally and formally distant texts: C.M. Ralph’s video game Caper in the Castro, created during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1989 and recently restored in 2017; and David Levithan’s 2013 young adult novel Two Boys Kissing, which is set in the present-day but narrated by a ghostly chorus of gay men—called the “shadow uncles”—who died during the worst of the AIDS epidemic. As a video game, Mason argues, Castro allows us to play with and feel the anxieties about HIV/AIDS that continue to circulate in queer YA and its criticism—including Levithan’s novel, which confines HIV/AIDS to historical trappings, keeping it detached from the social worlds of its young contemporary protagonists. This is consistent with the treatment of HIV/AIDS elsewhere in young adult literature, which habitually mis- and underrepresents the virus in order to preserve the innocence of its protagonists.Less
This chapter puts into conversation two temporally and formally distant texts: C.M. Ralph’s video game Caper in the Castro, created during the height of the AIDS crisis in 1989 and recently restored in 2017; and David Levithan’s 2013 young adult novel Two Boys Kissing, which is set in the present-day but narrated by a ghostly chorus of gay men—called the “shadow uncles”—who died during the worst of the AIDS epidemic. As a video game, Mason argues, Castro allows us to play with and feel the anxieties about HIV/AIDS that continue to circulate in queer YA and its criticism—including Levithan’s novel, which confines HIV/AIDS to historical trappings, keeping it detached from the social worlds of its young contemporary protagonists. This is consistent with the treatment of HIV/AIDS elsewhere in young adult literature, which habitually mis- and underrepresents the virus in order to preserve the innocence of its protagonists.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter five argues that children’s nonfiction has both accepted and resisted an anti-critical inclination that is all but endemic to photography, and it teases out the social construction of ...
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Chapter five argues that children’s nonfiction has both accepted and resisted an anti-critical inclination that is all but endemic to photography, and it teases out the social construction of childhood reinforced by both positions.Less
Chapter five argues that children’s nonfiction has both accepted and resisted an anti-critical inclination that is all but endemic to photography, and it teases out the social construction of childhood reinforced by both positions.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter one explains that the standard definition of nonfiction is that it is a literature of answers, but this chapter argues that the genre and the children for whom it is written are better served ...
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Chapter one explains that the standard definition of nonfiction is that it is a literature of answers, but this chapter argues that the genre and the children for whom it is written are better served if we think of it as a literature of questions.Less
Chapter one explains that the standard definition of nonfiction is that it is a literature of answers, but this chapter argues that the genre and the children for whom it is written are better served if we think of it as a literature of questions.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter seven argues that emotional engagement can and has dovetailed with critical engagement. Here, I use feminist theory to index the link between emotion and intellect, between the passion of ...
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Chapter seven argues that emotional engagement can and has dovetailed with critical engagement. Here, I use feminist theory to index the link between emotion and intellect, between the passion of civic engagement and the objectivity of inquiry.Less
Chapter seven argues that emotional engagement can and has dovetailed with critical engagement. Here, I use feminist theory to index the link between emotion and intellect, between the passion of civic engagement and the objectivity of inquiry.
Sheila Murnaghan and Deborah H. Roberts
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199583478
- eISBN:
- 9780191747472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199583478.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
The preceding work is summed up as a study of adults’ attempts over a century-long period to make sense of their own childhood experiences of antiquity and to recreate those experiences for new ...
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The preceding work is summed up as a study of adults’ attempts over a century-long period to make sense of their own childhood experiences of antiquity and to recreate those experiences for new generations through the medium of absorbing pleasure reading. Such experiences are valued for their capacity to stimulate the imagination, to expand moral understanding, to pave the way for further education, and to bring renewal or redemption to the disturbed modern world. The chapter ends with a brief survey of developments in classical mythology and historical fiction for children and young adults from the mid-1960s until the present, including the emergence of new forms of fantasy literature and the role of new media such as video games and fan fiction.Less
The preceding work is summed up as a study of adults’ attempts over a century-long period to make sense of their own childhood experiences of antiquity and to recreate those experiences for new generations through the medium of absorbing pleasure reading. Such experiences are valued for their capacity to stimulate the imagination, to expand moral understanding, to pave the way for further education, and to bring renewal or redemption to the disturbed modern world. The chapter ends with a brief survey of developments in classical mythology and historical fiction for children and young adults from the mid-1960s until the present, including the emergence of new forms of fantasy literature and the role of new media such as video games and fan fiction.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter three examines places where nonfiction points to the flaws in its characters, the times they have made mistakes, failed, or simply looked foolish. In these instances, as well as moments in ...
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Chapter three examines places where nonfiction points to the flaws in its characters, the times they have made mistakes, failed, or simply looked foolish. In these instances, as well as moments in which the characters of nonfiction are shown in the process of testing or even finishing one line of inquiry only to find new questions that remain unanswered, the genre demonstrates an ability to convey information while simultaneously making room for critical engagement with the people who produce knowledgeLess
Chapter three examines places where nonfiction points to the flaws in its characters, the times they have made mistakes, failed, or simply looked foolish. In these instances, as well as moments in which the characters of nonfiction are shown in the process of testing or even finishing one line of inquiry only to find new questions that remain unanswered, the genre demonstrates an ability to convey information while simultaneously making room for critical engagement with the people who produce knowledge
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter six applies the observations of the previous chapters to a case study of Almost Astronauts (2009), which won the American Library Association’s highest award for nonfiction in 2010. This ...
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Chapter six applies the observations of the previous chapters to a case study of Almost Astronauts (2009), which won the American Library Association’s highest award for nonfiction in 2010. This reading examines how the pursuit of authority and an understanding of children as vulnerable recipients of data requires the sacrifice of critical engagement and, ironically, results in a less honest book.Less
Chapter six applies the observations of the previous chapters to a case study of Almost Astronauts (2009), which won the American Library Association’s highest award for nonfiction in 2010. This reading examines how the pursuit of authority and an understanding of children as vulnerable recipients of data requires the sacrifice of critical engagement and, ironically, results in a less honest book.
Joe Sutliff Sanders
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781517903008
- eISBN:
- 9781452958842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9781517903008.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Chapter two examines how the voice of a book—in its use of hedges and a visible author as well as its dramatization of debate between sources—can attempt to invite or close off critical engagement
Chapter two examines how the voice of a book—in its use of hedges and a visible author as well as its dramatization of debate between sources—can attempt to invite or close off critical engagement
