Kelen / Sundmark Child Governance and Autonomy in Children’s Literature

Where Children Rule
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-1-317-39480-8
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Children's Literature and Culture

This book explores representations of child autonomy and self-governance in children’s literature.The idea of child rule and child realms is central to children’s literature, and childhood is frequently represented as a state of being, with children seen as aliens in need of passports to Adultland (and vice versa). In a sense all children’s literature depends on the idea that children are different, separate, and in command of their own imaginative spaces and places. Although the idea of child rule is a persistent theme in discussions of children’s literature (or about children and childhood) the metaphor itself has never been properly unpacked with critical reference to examples from those many texts that are contingent on the authority and/or power of children. Child governance and autonomy can be seen as natural or perverse; it can be displayed as a threat or as a promise. Accordingly, the "child rule"-motif can be seen in Robinsonades and horror films, in philosophical treatises and in series fiction. The representations of self-ruling children are manifold and ambivalent, and range from the idyllic to the nightmarish. Contributors to this volume visit a range of texts in which children are, in various ways, empowered, discussing whether childhood itself may be thought of as a nationality, and what that may imply. This collection shows how representations of child governance have been used for different ideological, aesthetic, and pedagogical reasons, and will appeal to scholars of children’s literature, childhood studies, and cultural studies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Kelen, Christopher

Sundmark, Bjorn

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Märchen, Mythen, Sagen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction Kit Kelen and Björn Sundmark 1. The Child Robinsonnade Björn Sundmark 2. La république universelle de l’enfance: A Nation without Borders Emer O’Sullivan 3. Picture Books in which Children can Enter and Rule: Spaces in Texts and Illustrations Junko Yokota 4. Children’s Rule in Comic Strips and TV Series Åse Marie Ommundsen 5. Can Children Rule? An Enquiry into Locke’s Ideas of Children and Government Mavis Reimer and Charlie Peters 6. Where Girls Rule by Magic: Metaphors of Agency Clare Bradford 7. Childre(ig)n of Terror: Dangerous Child Régimes Björn Sundmark 8. Where the Child is Father – Republics, Expulsions and the Rule/s of Poetry: Exploring Lewis Carroll’s 'Jabberwocky' Kit Kelen 9. Woods Where Things Have No Names: An Investigation of ‘The Teddy Bears’ Picnic’ (so-called) Kit Kelen 10. Controlling the Wild Things: Child Governance and Animal Sufferance Zoe Jaques

Über Autor(innen)

Christopher (Kit) Kelen is Professor of English at the University of Macau.

Björn Sundmark is Professor of English Literature at Malmö University, Sweden, and the editor of Bookbird – Journal of International Children’s Literature.