Children's Literature (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature) PDF
Preview Children's Literature (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature)
Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature Series Editors: Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley This series provides accessible yet provocative introductions to a wide range of literatures. The volumes will initiate and deepen the reader’s understanding of key literary movements, periods and genres, and consider debates that inform CHILDREN’S the past, present and future of literary study. Resources such as glossaries of key terms and details of archives and internet sites are also provided, making each volume a comprehensive critical guide. LITERATURE G r CHILDREN’S LITERATURE e n b M. O. Grenby y E s This critical guide provides a concise yet comprehensive history of British and C d North American children’s literature from its seventeenth-century origins to the e M. O. Grenby present day. H i d Each chapter focuses on one of the main genres of children’s literature: fables, I n L fantasy, adventure stories, moral tales, family stories, the school story, and i D b u poetry. M. O. Grenby shows how these forms have evolved over three hundred R years as well as asking why most children’s books, even today, continue to fall u G into one or other of these generic categories. Why, for instance, has fantasy E been so appealing to both Victorian and twenty-first-century children? Are the N r religious and moral stories written in the eighteenth century really so different g ’ l from the teenage problem novels of today? The book answers questions like S a these with a combination of detailed analysis of particular key texts and a broad h L c survey of hundreds of children’s books, both famous and forgotten. I T C i Key Features E t i • The first concise history of children’s literature to be published for more than R r r a decade A i C • Extensive coverage of children’s literature, across genres, continents and t T from the beginnings of the form to Harry Potter and Philip Pullman i U • Links close reading of texts with the historical and cultural context of their c h production and reception R a E g M. O. Grenby is Reader in Children’s Literature in the School of English Literature, l r Language and Linguistics at Newcastle University. He is a co-editor of Popular G u Children’s Literature in Britain (2008) and of The Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature (2008). b u n i Edinburgh University Press E d i 22 George Square d d Edinburgh EH8 9LF in e www.eup.ed.ac.uk b u E ISBN 978 0 7486 2274 0 rg s Cover design: Michael Chatfield h Pantone 152 Children’s Literature Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature Series Editors: Martin Halliwell, University of Leicester and Andy Mousley, De Montfort University Published Titles: Gothic Literature, Andrew Smith Canadian Literature, Faye Hammill Women’s Poetry, Jo Gill Contemporary American Drama, Annette J. Saddik Shakespeare, Gabriel Egan Asian American Literature, Bella Adams Children’s Literature, M. O. Grenby Forthcoming Titles in the Series: Eighteenth-Century Literature, Hamish Mathison Contemporary British Fiction, Nick Bentley Contemporary American Fiction, David Brauner Victorian Literature, David Amigoni Crime Fiction, Stacy Gillis Renaissance Literature, Siobhan Keenan Modern American Literature, Catherine Morley Scottish Literature, Gerard Carruthers Romantic Literature, Richard Marggraf Turley Modernist Literature, Rachel Potter Medieval Literature, Pamela King Women's Fiction, Sarah Sceats African American Literature, Jennifer Terry Children’s Literature M. O. Grenby Edinburgh University Press © Matthew Grenby, Edinburgh University Press Ltd George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Ehrhardt by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN (hardback) ISBN (paperback) The right of Matthew Grenby to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act . Contents Series Preface vi Acknowledgements vii Chronology ix Introduction Chapter Fables Chapter Poetry Chapter Moral and Instructive Tales Chapter The School Story Chapter The Family Story Chapter Fantasy Chapter The Adventure Story Conclusion Student Resources Glossary Guide to Further Reading Index Series Preface The study of English literature in the early twenty-first century is host to an exhilarating range of critical approaches, theories and historical perspectives. ‘English’ ranges from traditional modes of study such as Shakespeare and Romanticism to popular interest in national and area literatures such as the United States, Ireland and the Caribbean. The subject also spans a diverse array of genres from tragedy to cyberpunk, incorporates such hybrid fields of study as Asian American literature, Black British literature, creative writing and literary adaptations, and remains eclectic in its methodology. Such diversity is cause for both celebration and consterna- tion. English is varied enough to promise enrichment and enjoy- ment for all kinds of readers and to challenge preconceptions about what the study of literature might involve. But how are readers to navigate their way through such literary and cultural diversity? And how are students to make sense of the various literary categories and periodisations, such as modernism and the Renaissance, or the pro- liferating theories of literature, from feminism and Marxism to queer theory and eco-criticism? The Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature series reflects the challenges and pluralities of English today, but at the same time it offers readers clear and accessible routes through the texts, contexts, genres, historical periods and debates within the subject. Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley Acknowledgements An introduction to children’s literature might be written in many different ways. The particular approach I have adopted here derives from my experiences teaching in the School of English at Newcastle University. I am very grateful therefore to all the students who have taken my ‘Beyond Wonderland’ undergraduate module since it first began. Their responses to the course, and their comments about how difficult it can be for those new to the subject to find their bear- ings, have shaped my thinking about what a new introduction might try to do. But I am equally grateful to the community of postgrad- uate students in the Children’s Literature Unit at Newcastle. Their suggestions and criticisms, given as a group and individually, in person and by correspondence, have helped this book very much, and I have greatly enjoyed the challenge of responding to their forthright assessments. More than this, their own master’s and doctoral projects have prompted me to think in different ways about children’s literature. Above all, the enthusiasm and commitment of all the students in the Children’s Literature Unit has been an inspiration. My colleague Professor Kim Reynolds has read some sections of this book and, as ever, her advice has been constructive, astute and erudite. Dr Jenny Litster has taken the time to talk with me about my plans, and has generously shared her bright ideas and detailed knowledge. The anonymous reviewers of the proposal made many useful comments. All of the errors that remain are entirely my own. viii ’ I must also thank Dr Andy Mousley for suggesting that I should write this book, and, with Dr Martin Halliwell, for commissioning me to do so. Jackie Jones and James Dale, at Edinburgh University Press, have been sympathetic editors. I am very grateful for the patience and forbearance of them all. Finally, and above all, thank-you to Mary. Chronology The timeline lists only those children’s books mentioned in this Edinburgh Critical Guide. The chapters in which the texts are dis- cussed are given in brackets. Where the year of first publication is uncertain, an approximate date has been given. Evaldus Gallus, Pueriles Confabulatiunculae: or Children’s Dialogues(School) James Janeway, A Token for Children (Introduction; Moral Tales; Family) Benjamin Keach, War with the Devil(Introduction) John Bunyan, Divine Emblems, also known asA Book for Boys and Girlsor Country Rhimes for Children (Introduction; Poetry) Roger L’Estrange, Fables of Æsop(Fables) Cotton Mather, The Wonders of the Invisible World (Fantasy) Anon., The Friar and the Boy, a new version (Poetry) Joseph Jackson, A New Translation of Æsop’s Fables (Fables)
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