The Ethics and Practice of Lemony Snicket: Adolescence and Generation X

PMLA ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 502-521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Langbauer
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Generation X ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Julia Kristeva ◽  
The Face ◽  
Critical Insight ◽  
Ethical Stance ◽  
Insight Into

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is adolescent in the sense provided by Julia Kristeva–it offers critical insight into the breakdown of categories that support representational and ethical certainties. The ethical stance of its author, Daniel Handler, is complicated–urgent, resonant, distressing–caught in the devious irony endemic to metafictional play and to the sensibility of Generation X. Such irony casts light too on literary criticism's changing treatment of the critical subspecialty of children's literature as well as on its renewed but uneasy interest in ethics as revision of past humanism. A Series offers an ethics of practice, one that recognizes its dependence on the impulses it critiques. Just as the books' postmodern orphans improvise in the face of menace that doesn't stop, Handler's irony pictures a world where ethics can never be more than a provisional entente negotiating impossible ideals.

scholarly journals Much Bigger Than a Hamburger: Disrupting Problematic Picturebook Depictions of the Civil Rights Movement

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noreen Naseem Rodriguez ◽  
Amanda Vickery
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Racial Violence ◽  
Youth Activism ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Critical Content ◽  
The Face

While more diverse children's literature about youth activism is available than ever before, popular picturebooks often perpetuate problematic tropes about the Civil Rights Movement. In this article, we conduct a critical content analysis of the award-winning picturebook The Youngest Marcher and contrast the book's content to a critical race counterstory of the Movement focused on the collective struggle for justice in the face of racial violence. We argue for the need to engage students in civic media literacy through a critical race lens and offer ways to nuance the limited narratives often found in children's literature.

scholarly journals Vom »Mozartbuch für die Jugend« zu »Little Amadeus«

2021 ◽  
pp. 66-78
Author(s):  
Andreas Wicke
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Don Juan ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Divine Child ◽  
Insight Into

Artikelbeginn:[English title and abstract below] Das Bild Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts ist nicht nur durch seine Musik sowie unzählige biografische und musikhistorische Darstellungen geprägt, bereits früh wird es – angefangen bei E.T.A. Hoffmanns Don Juan (1813) und Eduard Mörikes Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag (1855/56) – durch literarische Texte dämonisiert, romantisiert, idyllisiert, später dann entheroisiert, neutralisiert, sentimentalisiert, trivialisiert oder popularisiert. Betrachtet man das Mozart-Bild im Kinderbuch, so lassen sich zwei Phasen deutlich voneinander trennen: Wird Mozart in den 1940er- und 1950er-Jahren religiös verklärt und zum göttlichen Kind stilisiert, steht in den Mozart-Kinderbüchern und -medien im beginnenden 21. Jahrhundert eine entmystifizierte Sichtweise im Vordergrund., sondern vor allem auch an der breiten Diskussion und der Gründung neuer Institutionen. From The Mozart Book for Youth to Little AmadeusThe Image of Mozart in Children’s Literature and Media Mozart is the most represented composer in literature and media for children, since the biography of his childhood is of genuine interest for that age group. Since the mid-twentieth century, however, the image of Mozart in children’s literature and media has undergone a significant change. Whereas the historical narratives of the 1940s and 1950s worship him as divine child and genius, the literary portrayals of him from the 1970s and 1980s are considered a turning point. This coincides with a caesura in Mozart biography generally, which replaced the hitherto heroising depictions with ones of a childishly naive, obscene and exalted clown. In the early twenty-first century depictions, child protagonists undertake fantastic time travels and meet young Mozart as equals. Instead of adopting a nostalgic attitude towards the wunderkind, these texts are characterised by their explanatory approach towards the composer and his time. Children’s literature written around 2006, Mozart’s 250th birthday, individualises the image of the famous composer, utilising sophisticated literary forms of presentation. The animated television series Little Amadeus, to name one of many examples discussed in the article, gives insight into both the popularisation and the trivialisation of contemporary depictions of Mozart.

Notes on an Anxious Genre: Queer Young Adult Literature and Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Derritt Mason
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young Adult ◽  
Young Adult Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Julia Kristeva ◽  
Oriented Growth ◽  
Queer Youth ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
Sociological Work ◽  
Queer Temporality

This chapter traces the emergence of queer themes and characters in young adult literature, as well as critical commentary on queer YA, to demonstrate how anxiety is the affective form that best characterizes this subgenre of children’s literature. Mason argues that, in the long tradition of children’s literature criticism, queer YA criticism functions as an illuminating index of anxieties about how adults address queer youth. This chapter draws on sociological work on adolescence, as well as psychoanalytic theorists Adam Phillips and Julia Kristeva, to illustrate how adolescence and young adult literature are themselves the products of adult anxiety. Anxiety characterizes the affective economy through which queer young adult literature circulates, Mason argues, while itself evincing a queer temporality that places delay and forward-oriented growth in tension with one another. Overall, Mason demonstrates the utility of children’s literature and its theories for thinking more broadly about adult concerns and anxieties.

scholarly journals The Day You Begin by J. Woodson

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Ford
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Award Winning ◽  
Poetic Text ◽  
Bachelor Of Education ◽  
The Face ◽  
Adults And Children ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Human Connection

Woodson, Jacqueline. The Day You Begin. Illustrated by Rafael López, Penguin Random House, 2018. Inspired by a poem in her award-winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, the Brooklyn based author Jacqueline Woodson wrote The Day You Begin about the moments in a child’s life when s/he feels like an outsider.  Throughout the pages, the reader goes on a journey through the eyes of various children and their experiences feeling like outsiders. The children discover that the moment you bravely reach out you will find that “every new friend has something a little like you—and something else so fabulously not quite like you at all.” Written in beautifully poetic text that is perfectly portrayed through the illustrations, this picture book speaks of hope and human connection in the face of fear, a concept easily connected to by all.  Rafael Lopez creates beautiful illustrations to inspire imagination and conjure up the precious richness of our differences. Pages filled with vibrant images of flowers and nature are used to represent the child’s unique qualities spoken of in the text. In contrast, dull colours and minimal images express feelings of difference.  The highly relatable experience of trying to measure up is illustrated on some of the pages through the presence of a ruler. Adults and children of all ages will be able to connect in some way with the characters on the page. Overall, this is a beautifully written book that can be used to discuss the vibrancy we can find in our communities when we cherish our differences and share of ourselves, if only we would begin.  Highly Recommended:  4 out of 4 starsReviewer:  Danielle Ford Danielle is an avid reader of all kinds of books. Currently in her last semester of her Bachelor of Education as an Elementary Generalist, she is looking forward to bringing rich children’s literature into her classroom.

scholarly journals Exploring Cultural Difference Through Translating Children’s Literature

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 322-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva-Maria Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Project Participants ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Professional Translator ◽  
Cultural Embeddedness

Abstract This article is descriptive in nature, presenting a student-faculty project in which participants translated a short children’s story from German into English in order to explore the cultural embeddedness of language and the hermeneutic nature of translation. By reflecting on issues surrounding the translation of children’s literature and by imitating the situation of a professional translator, project participants gained insight into the workings of language and the complexities associated with translation.

scholarly journals ss ieskats Astrīdas Lindgrēnes piemiņas balvas (ALMA) specifikā un bērnu literatūras apbalvošanas fenomenā. ALMA Latvijas grāmatizdošanas kontekstā

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gundega Ozoliņa ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Memorial Award ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Political Game ◽  
Literary Awards

Historically, children’s literature awards have been established both to improve the quality of children’s literature and to promote the market for children’s books. Today, an international prize for literature can be seen as a socio-political game with the aim of disseminating specific values and sharing various ideas that seem relevant to a society. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the most generous children’s literature award in monetary terms – and, at the same time, one of the largest literary awards. The study examines the details and choices of ALMA nomination, provides a brief insight into the problems of the awarding phenomenon, as well as considers ALMA in the context of Latvian book publishing.

The Poverty of Posthumanism: Evolution and Extinction in Eugene Field's ‘Extinct Monsters’

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-197
Author(s):  
Peter Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
First Century ◽  
Unpublished Manuscript ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Poetic Authority ◽  
The Face ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Natural Histories

This article interrogates constructions of posthumanism in twenty-first century children's literature criticism and ecocriticism. Focusing on an unpublished manuscript by Eugene Field, it argues that the concept of species extinction undermines the theoretical usefulness of posthumanism. The paper begins by discussing the uses and shortcomings of posthumanism as a critical tool in children's literature. In doing so, it establishes connections with the challenge to the human posed by technology in the twenty-first century and the new understanding of what constitutes the human at the end of the nineteenth century. This paper documents intersections between Field's illustrated poem and contemporary representations of evolution and extinction circulating in popular and scientific natural histories. It is suggested that Field's text is also mediated by the visual traditions which framed contemporary natural history writing. Further, situating Field's poetry for children in a broader tradition of nineteenth-century American poetics committed to authorising the voice of the poet, it asks how this voice is complicated by the new realities of evolution and extinction. Confronted with these new realities, Field's manuscript traces the waning of poetic authority and, it is argued, thereby calls for a new aesthetics of children's literature in the face of extinction.

Conflict Resolution and Patronage in Provincial Towns, 1590–1640

1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Civic Leaders ◽  
Stability And Control ◽  
The Past ◽  
Order And Disorder ◽  
The People ◽  
The Face ◽  
Critical Insight ◽  
And Control ◽  
Insight Into

Historians of early modern England, just like the people they study, are preoccupied with order and disorder. Particularly for the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, attention has focused on how a government and political nation whose prescriptions demanded unanimity and stability descended into civil war and revolution, the ultimate disorder. The period saw rising populations, social mobility, economic change, and religious division, all of which placed stress on the traditional order. These agents of turmoil deserve close attention. But in focusing so intently on breakdown, we tend to miss seeing how Elizabethan and early Stuart government actually worked. For most of these years, a reasonably stable and increasingly integrated royal government ruled peacefully over the English people. By shifting our attention away from breakdown, we can begin to ask critical new questions. How, precisely, did the leaders of this society work to create order in the face of difference? How did the nature of government affect the ways that people sought stability?Evidence from urban government—provincial borough corporations—provides critical insight into these questions. Civic leaders found that the best way to maintain order and authority in their own communities was by participating in the wider governing structures of the state. London's attempts at the “pursuit of stability” have received serious treatment in recent years. Provincial towns, however, have less often been studied as a means to understand the polity as a whole. They have in the past been characterized as quite insular, either abjectly dependent on a great lord or gentleman or else “independent” and unwilling to brook outside influences; they sought stability and control by looking inward, reinforcing their own authority.

scholarly journals Becoming human. From cultural memory to new senses of beloging stories of migration in contemporary picture books

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilaria Filograsso
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Civil Responsibility ◽  
The Face

This contribution aims to investigate the complex, transformative role children's literature can play in today’s socio-cultural context, offering a creative platform, not only in terms of plot or contexts, but also in terms of stylistic research and the book as a medium, on which to build new ways of thinking about and designing reality. The work focuses specifically on one of the most significant picture books on the topic of (real or metaphoric) migration, refugees, migrants’ difficult and controversial path to integration. The very rich production in recent years has, with different registers each time, emblematically interpreted the political vocation of contemporary children's literature, formulating relations with otherness, encouraging the deconstruction of cultural stereotypes and preventing emotional anaesthesia in the face of issues that demand the precise assumption of human and civil responsibility. In formal terms, it investigates the narrative strategies adopted by the authors and illustrators to guide the empathic involvement of the reader, aiming to foster reflexive and pro-social attitudes. In the picture books examined, the representation of the refugee, the stateless, the “destined to death”, to quote Hanna Arendt, for whom the loss of citizenship equals the denial of the most basic human rights, challenges the “danger of a single history”.

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