Poetics of Children's Literature - Hardcover

Shavit, Zohar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820307904 ISBN 13: 9780820307909

Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Synopsis

In this study, the author isolates the conventions and moral aims that have structured children's literature, from the fairy tales collected and reworked by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm - in particular, "Little Red Riding Hood" - through the complex manipulations of Lewis Carroll in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", to the subversion of the genre's canonical requirements in the chapbooks of the 18th century and in the formulaic Nancy Drew books of our own day. The author explores not only how society has shaped children's literature, but also how society has been reflected in the literary works it produces for its children - how its ideals and prejudices have been set forth, often without disguise, to serve as lessons for future citizens. Children's literature is the only branch of literature that, in our day, still retains the overt purpose of instruction, and that still is required to present to its reader a moral. Exploring the relationship between children's literature and society, this book charts the cultural manipulations that shape writing for children and the literary devices by which authors make room for creativity amid the strictures of a sternly codified literary system.

About this title

About the Author

Zohar Shavit is a full professor at the Unit for Culture Research in the School of Culture Research at the Tel-Aviv University. She is the author of ten books, among them: "The Literary Life in Eretz-Israel, 1910-1933," "The Construction of Hebrew Culture in Eretz Israel," "A Past without Shadow," and "German-Jewish Literature for Children and Adolescents."

From Library Journal

Advocacy of value systems is not unique to children's literature. This semiotic study of the social matrix of the genre sees it as in thrall to the educational establishment. While deploring the poor self-image of children's literature, Shavit discounts as "ambivalent" (ostensibly for children but "really" for adults) some of its best productions. Although the rise of the "notion of the child" is central to the argument, a major weakness of the text is its failure to distinguish among child readers or to acknowledge advanced literary competence among them. Other weaknesses include obscurities of semiotic jargon and limitations of the test-case method. Much theoretical discussion of conventions and constraints merely underscores the fact that this genre must accommodate both adult and child readers. Patricia Dooley, formerly with English Dept., Drexel Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr
• ISBN 10: 0820307904
• ISBN 13: 9780820307909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English