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Elizabeth Parsons Elizabeth Parsons i(A69642 works by)
Gender: Female
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Works By

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1 Animating Child Activism : Environmentalism and Class Politics in Ghibli's Princess Mononoke (1997) and Fox's Fern Gully (1992) Michael J. Smith , Elizabeth Parsons , 2012 single work criticism
— Appears in: Continuum : Journal of Media & Cultural Studies , vol. 26 no. 1 2012; (p. 25-37) 'Informed by ecocriticism, this article conducts a comparative examination of two contemporary animated children's films, Princess Mononoke (1997) and Fern Gully (1992). While both films advocate for the prevention of deforestation, they are, to varying degrees, antithetical to environmentalism. Both films reject the principles of deep ecology in displacing responsibility for environmental destruction on to 'supernatural' forces and exhibit anthropocentric concern for the survival of humans. We argue that these films constitute divergent methodological approaches for environmental consciousness-raising in children's entertainment. The western world production demonstrates marked conservatism in its depiction of identity politics and 'cute' feminization of nature, while Hayao Miyazaki's film renders nature sublime and invokes complex socio-cultural differences. Against FernGully's 'othering' of working-class and queer characters, we posit that Princess Mononoke is decidedly queer, anti-binary and ideologically bi-partisan and, in accord with the underlying principle of environmental justice, asks child audiences to consider compassion for the poor in association with care for nature.' (Author's abstract)
1 Capitalism Run Wild : Zizou Corder's Lion Boy and Victor Kelleher's Dog Boy Elizabeth Parsons , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 16 no. 2 2006; (p. 29-34) Parsons critiques two novels, Dog Boy, by Australian author Victor Kelleher and American Zizou Corder's Lion Boy, in terms of how they navigate neo-liberalist ideologies utilizing the nature/culture schism. Parson's argues that in an age when 'the negative consequences of corporate greed are more apparent', the appropriation of animal metaphors and the Darwinian notion of 'the survival of the fittest' are considerably more problematic (29). The comparative reading draws attention to some of the ways in which contemporary children's/young adult fiction attempts to (and/or appears to) critique and challenge corporate and consumerist culture and in this case the protagonists in both texts 'share a need to embrace animal instincts in order to regulate and participate in a dehumanizing economic world' (29). Parsons concludes that the challenge to corporate power in children's texts is dominated by male/boy protagonists and in the novels discussed, the idealization of the (male) hero is underpinned by a 'post-feminist bid to reinstate patriarchal dominance' (33).
1 Ania Walwicz Elizabeth Parsons , 2006 single work biography
— Appears in: Australian Writers 1975-2000 2006; (p. 315-321)
1 Identity Territory : Pamela Allen's Picture Books in the Australian Psyche Elizabeth Parsons , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 20 no. 1 2006; (p. 50-55)
1 Images of Resilience : Children's Texts Modelling Survival in Threatening Environments Elizabeth Parsons , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: CREArTA : Journal of the Centre for Research and Education in the Arts , vol. 6 no. 2006; (p. 128-137)
1 The Body of Work : Dorothy Porter's Akhenaten Elizabeth Parsons , 2006 single work criticism
— Appears in: Gender Forum , no. 13 2006;

'This article stages an 'imagendering' of Akhenaten, a contemporary collection of poems by Australian poet Dorothy Porter. Surviving sculptures of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten depict a hermaphroditic subject who is, for Porter, a muse of transgression. Her fascination is with his challenge to long-held creative conventions of Egyptian art, depicting himself with a combination of breasts, swollen belly, rounded thighs and a penis. This collection of poems is thus a site of gendered reinscription made possible by the death of Akhenaten's physical body. His bodily absence allows for Porter's textual presence. Operating in this speculative historical space, a space in which the body of work physiologically cross-dresses and engages in sexual play across the boundaries of masculine/feminine, history/poetry, symbolic/semiotic, this poetry demonstrates that language itself can never evade embodiment.'

Source: Abstract.
1 It'll End in Tears : Melancholy in Contemporary Australian Picture Books Elizabeth Parsons , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 4 no. 2005; (p. 77-88)
1 Performing Picture Books Elizabeth Parsons , 2004 single work criticism
— Appears in: Seriously Playful : Genre, Performance & Text 2004; (p. 31-41) Parsons investigates adult reading of picture books to children as performance.
1 Olive Hopegood: "Not Every Piglet Makes a Hamlet' Elizabeth Parsons , 2002 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 62 no. 1 2002; (p. 115-129)
1 Construction Sites of Sexual Identity : A Reading of Emily Rodda's Bob the Builder and the Elves Elizabeth Parsons , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , December vol. 11 no. 3 2001; (p. 32-38) Parsons offers a comprehensive critique of gender roles in Emily Rodda's Bob the Builder and the Elves, and claims that the narrative is 'profoundly conservative' in its underlying promotion of heterosexual ideology (34-35). She points out that while children's literature has usually been perceived as 'innocent' of sexual politics, 'no text is innocent of ideology' and goes on to argue that in Rodda's text, '...the story's correlation of heterosexuality with correctness, normality and 'happily ever after' borders on the homophobic' (32). In his influential text, Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction, John Stephens says that literature is used to teach children 'how to live in the world' and in childrens' texts, representations of sexuality and gender often function at an unconscious level which reinforces the dominant hegemonic worldview (8). This is, says Parsons, 'ideology's most powerful aspect, its hidden nature and the subtley of its messages' and the job of children's literary criticism is to 'identify the ideological tensions in the texts we offer to children and balance these kinds of representations appropriately' and to encourage a society in which alternative sexualities are accepted and not alienated by social structures (38).
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