Reid-Walsh Interactive Children's Texts and Movable Books

Playful Media before Pop-Ups
Erscheinungsjahr 2017
ISBN: 978-1-135-09807-0
Verlag: CRC Press
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 276 Seiten

Reihe: Children's Literature and Culture

This book is a historical and comparative study of the movable book — media that crosses the borders between game and narrative — as interactive narrative media in relation to the implied and actual child interactors who engage with them. The interrelation among children, interactive media, and participatory culture is usually thought of as a contemporary phenomenon, particularly associated with digital media such as computer games. Reid-Walsh focuses on the period movable books first became connected with children in the mid-17th century and extending to the early-19th century, emphasizing the smaller, simpler, portable types of movable books: notably flap books, paper doll books, and related hybrid experiments such as toy theaters and paignion (or domestic play set) produced between 1650 and 1830. Despite being popular in their own times, these texts are little known today, and so draw attention to a gap in our knowledge of children’s print culture by showing how these artifacts are important in their own right, and highlighting the relative simplicity and/ or transparency of their design in relation to the child interactor. Studying moveable books as interactive, narrative media texts on paper platforms, this book considers not only the object but also the roles of the child reader. Since the movable book is a hybrid artifact consisting of words and images and movable components, it crosses the borders between a story, a toy, and a game. Demonstrating the longevity of children as producers as well as consumers of media, this book combines archival research with historical children’s literature studies, book history, and juvenilia studies, drawing on both Enlightenment thinkers and contemporary digital media theorists to suggest that new media might bear examination in terms of both old and current theories.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Kinder- und Jugendliteratur, Märchen, Mythen, Sagen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: What is a Movable Book? Part I: Theoretical Issues and Cultural Contexts 1. A Historical, Comparative Discussion of Interactivity: John Locke Meets Janet Murray 2. 17th-19th Century Children’s Domestic Practices: "Activities" and "Rational Recreations" as Early DIY Culture Part II: 17th-19th Century Flap Books in England and America and their Child Interactors: Activity as Agency 3. 17th -19th Century Religious Flap Books in England and America: Movable Religious Lessons and Subversion by Design 4. 18th Century Moral Flap Books and Stage-Based Harlequinades: From Moral Emblem to Play Remediation 5. 17th to 19th Century Child-Made Flap Books: The Child Interactor as Producer Part III: Regency Movables and Their Middle Class Child Interactors: Activity as Performance (Paper Doll Books, Toy Theaters, Paignion) 6. Paper Doll Books: Gender and Genre Play For Girls and Boys 7. Toy Theaters and the Paignion: Miniature Spectacles and Domestic Dramas for Child Gamers 8: "Modding" Paper Doll Books and Toy Theater Sheets: Domestic Activities as "Mashup" Play Part IV: Later Movable Media: Activity and Agency Disconnected and Reconnected? 9. Victorian and Contemporary Movables: Activity as Catalyst And Prosthetic Action Conclusion: Playing as Learning: Rethinking Children’s Activity and Agency Past and Present

Über Autor(innen)

Jacqueline Reid-Walsh is Associate Professor of Education, Language & Literacy Education, and Women's Studies at Pennsylvania State University, US.