Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children's Literature

251 Pages·2014·1.218 MB·English

by  Claudia Nelson, Rebecca Morris (eds.)

RepResenting ChildRen in Chinese
and U.s. ChildRen’s liteRatURe
Bringing together children’s literature scholars from China and the United
States, this collection provides an introduction to the scope and goals of a field
characterized by active but also distinctive scholarship in two countries with very
different rhetorical traditions. The volume’s five sections highlight the differences
between and overlapping concerns of Chinese and american scholars, as they
examine children’s literature with respect to cultural metaphors and motifs,
historical movements, authorship, didacticism, important themes, and the current
status of and future directions for literature and criticism. Wide-ranging and
admirably ambitious in its encouragement of communication between scholars
from two major nations, Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children’s
Literature serves as a model for examining how and why children’s literature,
more than many literary forms, circulates internationally.
ashgate studies in Childhood,
1700 to the present
Series Editor: Claudia Nelson, Texas A&M University, USA
this series recognizes and supports innovative work on the child and on literature
for children and adolescents that informs teaching and engages with current
and emerging debates in the field. Proposals are welcome for interdisciplinary
and comparative studies by humanities scholars working in a variety of fields,
including literature; book history, periodicals history, and print culture and the
sociology of texts; theater, film, musicology, and performance studies; history,
including the history of education; gender studies; art history and visual culture;
cultural studies; and religion.
topics might include, among other possibilities, how concepts and
representations of the child have changed in response to adult concerns; postcolonial
and transnational perspectives; “domestic imperialism” and the acculturation
of the young within and across class and ethnic lines; the commercialization of
childhood and children’s bodies; views of young people as consumers and/or
originators of culture; the child and religious discourse; children’s and adolescents’
self-representations; and adults’ recollections of childhood.
also in the series
Female Rebellion in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction
edited by sara K. day, Miranda a. green-Barteet, and amy l. Montz
Empire, Education, and Indigenous Childhoods
Nineteenth-Century Missionary Infant Schools in Three British Colonies
helen May, Baljit Kaur, and larry prochner
Children’s Games in the New Media Age
Childlore, Media and the Playground
edited by andrew Burn and Chris Richards
The Making of Modern Children’s Literature in Britain
Publishing and Criticism in the 1960s and 1970s
lucy pearson
Representing Children in Chinese
and U.s. Children’s literature
edited by
ClaUdia nelson and ReBeCCa MoRRis
Texas A&M University, USA
© Claudia nelson and Rebecca Morris, and the contributors 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Claudia nelson and Rebecca Morris have asserted their right under the Copyright, designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
published by
ashgate publishing limited ashgate publishing Company
Wey Court east 110 Cherry street
Union Road suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, Vt 05401-3818
surrey, gU9 7pt Usa
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Representing children in Chinese and U.s. children’s literature / edited by Claudia nelson
and Rebecca Morris.
pages cm. -- (ashgate studies in Childhood, 1700 to the present)
includes index.
isBn 978-1-4724-2421-1 (hardcover) -- isBn 978-1-4724-2422-8 (ebook) --
isBn 978-1-4724-2423-5 (epub) 1. Children’s literature, Chinese--history and criti-
cism. 2. Children’s literature, american--history and criticism. 3. Children in literature.
i. nelson, Claudia. ii. Morris, Rebecca.
pl2449.R47 2014
895.109’9282--dc23
2014017437
isBn: 9781472424211 (hbk)
isBn: 9781472424228 (ebk – pdF)
isBn: 9781472424235 (ebk – epUB)
V
printed in the United Kingdom by henry ling limited,
at the dorset press, dorchester, dt1 1hd
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Acknowledgments and Textual Note xvii
Introduction 1
Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris
Section i: theorizing children’S literature:
Journey aS Metaphor and Motif
1 Images of Growth: Embodied Metaphors in Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn 11
Roberta Seelinger Trites
2 Identifying the “Motif ” in a Country’s Image of Children: Research
on Children’s Issues in the Ming Dynasty, a Cultural Critique and
Interpretation of Formulated Developmental Strategies 21
Ban Ma, translated by Lin Aimei
Section ii: chineSe children’S literature and the
May fourth MoveMent
3 On the Image of Children and the Three Stages of Transformation in
100 Years of Chinese Children’s Literature 35
Wang Quangen, translated by Jiang Qian
4 The Originality of Lu Xun’s Views of Children and China’s Modern
Image of Children 47
Xu Yan, translated by Chi Xin
5 The Discovery of Children: The Origins of Zhou Zuoren’s Thoughts
on “Humane Literature” 63
Zhu Ziqiang, translated by Xu Derong
vi Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children’s Literature
Section iii: StudieS of aMerican authorShip
6 Love and Death in Clovernook: Alice Cary’s Children
of theOh ioFron tie r 77
Dennis Berthold
7 Interpreting Elizabeth Foreman Lewis’s Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze 87
Kenneth Kidd
8 Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain: Imaging the American
Child through a British Lens 97
Robert Boenig
Section iv: a hiStory of didactic children’S literature
9 The Multiple Facets and Contemporary Mission of the Images of
Children in Chinese Children’s Literature 109
Tang Sulan, translated by Wang Xiaohui
10 Images of Children and Views of Children’s Literature in
Contemporary China 119
Chen Hui, translated by Chi Xin
11 Children’s Disposition and Children’s Views 129
Cao Wenxuan, translated by Liang Hong
12 Representing Boys and Girls in the 1912 Book of Knowledge 137
Claudia Nelson
13 “Black and Beautiful and Bruised Like Me”: Contrasts and the Black
Aesthetic in Picture Books of Langston Hughes 147
Michelle H. Martin
14 Remembering the Civil Rights Movement in Photographic
Texts for Children 161
Katharine Capshaw
Section v: theMeS in children’S literature
15 Wimpy Boys and Spunky Girls: Beverly Cleary’s Template for the
Gendered Child in Postwar American Children’s Literature 175
Claudia Mills
Contents vii
16 The Commercial Cultural Spirit and the Contemporary Image
of Children: A Discussion of the Artistic Innovation of China’s
Contemporary Children’s Literature 185
Fang Weiping, translated by Li Jie
17 Retelling the First World War as Alternate History and Technological
Fantasy in American Children’s Literature 197
Lynne Vallone
18 Back to Basic Points and Seeking a Turning Point:
The Multidimensional Construction of Adolescent Identity in
American Realistic Novels for Young Adults 209
Tan Fengxia, translated by Taoyang
coda
On Writing Children’s Literature
Mei Zihan, translated by Wang Chengcheng
Index 227
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List of Illustrations
13.1 Untitled illustration from Martin’s Big Words © 2001 by Doreen
Rappaport; illustrations by Bryan Collier. Reprinted by Permission
of Disney•Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group LLC. All
Rights Reserved. 154
13.2 Untitled illustration from Love to Langston: text copyright © 2002
by Tony Medina; illustrations copyright © 2002 by R. Gregory
Christie. Permissions arranged with Lee & Low Books Inc., New
York, NY 10016. 158