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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
The close of a century invites both retrospection and prognostication. As a period of transition, it also brings a sense of uncertainty, finality, and apocalypticism. These feelings stem from various events, such as political turmoil, scientific advancements, and social change. As might be expected, literature reflects such changes and the feelings they engender. But perhaps more surprisingly, children's literature is especially sensitive to such matters, and fiction for children often struggles with dark and unpleasant issues. This book examines fin de siécle tensions in 19th- and 20th-century children's literature from around the world.
Each chapter is written by an expert contributor, and the volume ranges over a disparate variety of topics. These include poetry, series books, pacifist fiction, gender issues, religion and literature, eco-criticism, minority experiences, humor and the Holocaust, fantasy and science fiction, and computer culture. In exploring these issues in relation to children's literature, the contributors reveal the shifting nature of our values and the world in which we live. Global in nature, the chapters look at children's literature from such places as Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. (Amazon)
Notes
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
- 'A Little Child Shall Lead Them' : The Child as Redeemer, single work criticism (p. 57-70)
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The Sky Is Falling : Children as Environmental Subjects in Contemporary Picture Books,
single work
criticism
"The metanarratives that circulate in Western culture around environmental topics rarely have happy endings; many, indeed, are apocalyptic in their depictions of ecological outcomes. [In this chapter, Bradford considers] what happens when these two categories of metanarrative meet in contemporary picture books, which thematize environmental topics."
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Representations of Masculinity in Australian Young Adult Fiction,
single work
criticism
"This chapter discusses the early stage of a research inquiry into the implications of changing representations of masculinity offered in young adult literature to adolescent, male readers."
- Leaving the Men to Drown? Fin de Siécle Reconfigurations of Masculinity in Children's Fiction, single work criticism (p. 179-187)