My serendipitous career in children’s literature (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Year's Work in Children's Literature Studies: 1982
Children's Literature Association Quarterly, 1983
Readers will note that the bibliography for 1988 is more than double the size of that for 1987• The increase in size is not only because we have consulted more journals and accessed more data bases, but also because of an increasing interest in children's literature studies. Three new journals exclusively devoted to children's literature have recently appeared: Five Owls, the International Review of Children's Literature and Librarianship, and the New Advocate, an attractive rebirth of the Advocate. Thus the demise of Phaedrus, which ceases publication after volume 13, 1988, has already been compensated for in regard to the quantity of articles, if not in regard to its special contributions to the field. Let us hope that Phaedrus will also be reborn, perhaps under the aegis of a Comparative Literature Department, the logical place for a journal of its international orientation. A final reason for the large size of the bibliography is its inclusive nature. If the question of what should properly constitute its subject is addressed from the point of view of audience rather than authors and publishers and their intentions, the definition of children's literature must be inclusive rather than exclusive: works for which there is compelling evidence that they have been read and enjoyed by a substantial number of children over a period of years. A theoretical basis for such a view is provided by Reception Aesthetics, which rejects the idea of a natural dichotomy between children's and adult literature; see, for example, Dagmar Grenz's article on E.TA. Hoffmann. A complex literary text, then, has a range of possibilities which allows its readers to understand it differently but adequately; if the possibilities of an "adult" book like Robinson Crusoe admit of enjoyment and understanding by an audience that includes a substantial number of children, articles about it, particularly those of a sufficiently generalized nature to illuminate what children may understand and appreciate, belong in a bibliography of children's literature. Indeed, several articles in this bibliography address the child or young adult audience for works usually assumed to be for adults, for example Alan MacGregor's article on Sir Walter Scott. On the other hand, articles about a work for children appropriated by adults like Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn also belong in the bibliography since the book continues to be enjoyed by some children. Two recent critical articles appearing in scholarly journals usually devoted to adult literature recognize that the work is, in fact, a children's book; the one by Alan Gribben places it in the context of the boy book. This bibliography differs from that of 1987 not only in size, but in the number and nature of the categories into which it is classified. It is our hope that the classification system will aid the researcher in determining what has been neglected as well as what has already been more than adequately covered. Of note is the opportunity for further studies signaled by the articles, primarily short memorials, on members of the profession who have recently died.
Literature for children offers an ongoing challenge for creators, publishers, readers (of whatever age), educators, and researchers. Its functioning is inseparably connected with the historically changing system of social expectations towards children and childhood. The instability of these postulates and concepts remains a source of numerous controversies. It is these polemics and inconsistencies that we wish to make the subject of our conference. Controversy seems to be the essence of literature for children, as reflected in its perception, for example, as a projection of the fantasies, fears, and desires of adults (Rose 1984), a form of child oppression and colonization of childhood (Nodelman 1992), an element of the aetonormative world ruled by adults (Nikolajeva 2010), or as a part of the pedagogical project of childhood that attempts to control the future (Beauvais 2015). Simultaneously, the importance of children's literature as a bridge between childhood and adulthood (Waller 2019, Wróblewski 2019) or as a platform for the development of symmetrical relations between child and adult (e.g. Gubar 2016, Joosen 2018, Chawar et al. 2018) is being increasingly emphasized. These and other postulates remain open and worthy of further reflection. The research on children's literature itself also invites reflective interest: what are its premises, goals, and expectations? This conference aims to encourage joint identification and analysis of controversial decisions, practices, and attitudes concerning the cultural, social, and political significance of children's literature, its place in the public, publishing, and academic spaces, as well as its involvement in the exploration of and dealing with contemporary problems. With what challenges of the modern world does it confront children and adults? We invite you to submit papers on controversial issues related to children's literature in terms of creativity, reception, publishing, and research: THE CREATIVE DIMENSION-controversial authors of children's literature;-controversial topics as a reflection of historically changing social norms and concepts of children's literature;-cross-over literature and the aestheticization of children's literature;-children's literature authored by children (also in the context of new media);-controversial choices and attitudes of translators of children's literature;-the phenomenon of polemical translation and children's literature;
The Child's Voice in Children's Literature
1996
The existence of children's literature as a genre has, to a large extent, depended on its function as a force of social manipulation, rather than on any concern with literary value. The need to consider children's literature in the light of developments in literary theory that emphasize the importance of the semiotics of the text, and in particular, the way in which language controls the reader's response, can bring to light the processes in the literature of childhood that form the adult reader. However, while the children's literature specialist is investigating the workings of the text from a viewpoint that embraces developments in literary theory, the theorist almost completely ignores the texts of childhood. This study aims to propose methods which allow children's voices to be heard in a nondirected, open way. This research is shaped by seven case studies framed by three main areas of context. The first is an investigation of modern literary theory and its relationship to the books of childhood. The second is the context within which the texts are delivered to children. The third is the notion of reading history. Each case study is underpinned by the individual child's reading history, derived from interviews with parents, children and teachers. While looking for a way to give children a voice in the adult dominated world of children's fiction, this researcher found it to be in the nature of the text itself. (Contains 23 references.)
Children's Literature Comes of Age
Children's Literature Comes of Age, 2015
IT IS NO longer possible for one person to cover the entire range of children's literature. The global nature of culture today, the availability of literature from Japan, China, the Middle East, Africa, and even the English translations of the stories told by the Australian aboriginal people or the First Nations peoples of Canada and the Russian transcriptions of tundra peoples, discourage any claim to an exhaustive review. Above all, the domination of English in publishing and on the Internet contributes to a "uniformization" of the imagination, particularly in children's culture, through the mass production of films and the press. This new international order increases the responsibility of the critics and of any statement intended to define the legitimacy or distinctive signs of chaotic production; the requirements of theoretical clarity must not lead us to overlook the possible impact and consequences of every formal statement. This is why Maria Nikolajeva's attempt is provocative and stimulating for an examination of the cultural and-to a lesser degree-of the political values implicitly at stake in the field of children's literature and criticism. In Children s Literature Comes of Age: Toward a New Aesthetic, which reflects the breadth of her culture, the finesse of her analysis, and a carefully argued thesis, she does not imagine that she can cover the entire range of contemporary children's literature; on the contrary, she modestly points out in her conclusion that "everything that has been said obviously refers to a very small portion of modern children's books, even a very tiny part of what is normally classified as quality literature" (207). However, the method she uses, the books she chooses to study, and her general approach, all reveal ARIEL: