Marks of Possession: Methods for an Impossible Subject

PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Sánchez-Eppler

In her 1892 study of children's literature, the child and his book, louise frances field complains, “the subject of this volume is one which, from its nature, presents many difficulties as regards material. It is the fate of children's books to be destroyed by children themselves” (v). Of course, the difficulties of children's literature are not only material. Jacqueline Rose's insistence on the “impossibility of children's fiction” has had the salutary effect of keeping scholars warily attuned to how adult desires—from sex to money to politics—structure the genre. Despite the claim of possession housed in that apostrophe, most scholars of children's literature acknowledge that these books don't really belong to children at all (Hunt). My intention in this essay is to use one of these impossibilities to circumvent the other. I am interested in children's own relation to their reading; I strive to understand not just the books adults produced for children—that is, what adults thought about childhood and wanted to say to children—but also what children actually did with these texts, how they took possession of them. I hope to demonstrate that the penchant for destroying books that Field deplores can provide insight into the literary history of childhood. For this brief essay, I take as my archive the book-destroying habits of the children of one affluent, highly literary family in post–Civil War New England: the niece and nephews of the poet Emily Dickinson—Edward (“Ned”), born in 1861; Martha (“Mattie”), born in 1866; and Thomas Gilbert (“Gib”), born in 1875.

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Türkan Tosun

This study analyses the Kurdish children' literature in the North. The goal is to show works which about kurdish children's literature in the North. First, the definitions of child, childhood and children's literature have been explained. Then about history of Kurdish children's literature some informations are given. Kurdish children's literature when started and who has written for the children is also mentioned. Kurdish writers, poet and intellectuals who work for children in the North are introduced. Kurdish children' magazines and publishers that publish Kurdish children's books in the North also been the subject of this article.


2006 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 61-67
Author(s):  
Brooke Collins-Gearing

AbstractAustralian children’s literature has a history of excluding Indigenous child readers and positioning non-Indigenous readers as the subject. Rather than portray such literature, particularly before the 1950s, as simply racist or stereotypical, I argue that it is important for teachers, of all students, to help readers understand how nationalist or white Australian myths were constructed on Indigenous land and knowledges.


2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Dwi Susanto ◽  
Albertus Prasojo ◽  
Rianna Wati ◽  
Murtini Murtini

This research focused on the spread of aesthetic discourse in Islamic literature, especially Islamic Indonesian children’s literature which was marginalised in Indonesian literature history. The paper aimed to identify the system of exclusion or prohibition, restrictions to discourse and genealogical aesthetics of Islamic children’s literature. The data utilised were various discourses available in Indonesian literature, aesthetics in the history of the literature mentioned, Indonesian literary experts and critics’ opinions, and different information related to the topic. Data interpretation was executed based on the strategy introduced by Michel Foucault on discourse and power. Results showed that the discourse of Islamic literary aesthetics was deliberately eliminated during the New Order era because it was believed to be a part of the right-wing political power apparatus. That exclusion was carried out with restrictions and prohibitions by highlighting the aesthetics of development and modernity as the dominant aesthetic discourse in Indonesian literature, such as universal humanism. The history of aesthetic discourse in Islamic literature, including Islamic children’s literature, appeared significantly during the Post-Reformation era due to the New Order’s collapse. Hence aesthetic discourses that emerged afterwards were highly diverse and on par with other genres. Keywords: Islamic literary aesthetic discourse, children’s literature, Indonesian literary history.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Amy Cross ◽  
Cherie Allan ◽  
Kerry Kilner

This paper examines the effects of curatorial processes used to develop children's literature digital research projects in the bibliographic database AustLit. Through AustLit's emphasis on contextualising individual works within cultural, biographical, and critical spaces, Australia's literary history is comprehensively represented in a unique digital humanities space. Within AustLit is BlackWords, a project dedicated to recording Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling, publishing, and literary cultural history, including children's and young adult texts. Children's literature has received significant attention in AustLit (and BlackWords) over the last decade through three projects that are documented in this paper. The curation of this data highlights the challenges in presenting ‘national’ literatures in countries where minority voices were (and perhaps continue to be) repressed and unseen. This paper employs a ‘resourceful reading’ approach – both close and distant reading methods – to trace the complex and ever-evolving definition of ‘Australian children's literature’.


2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAEL DARR

This article describes a crucial and fundamental stage in the transformation of Hebrew children's literature, during the late 1930s and 1940s, from a single channel of expression to a multi-layered polyphony of models and voices. It claims that for the first time in the history of Hebrew children's literature there took place a doctrinal confrontation between two groups of taste-makers. The article outlines the pedagogical and ideological designs of traditionalist Zionist educators, and suggests how these were challenged by a group of prominent writers of adult poetry, members of the Modernist movement. These writers, it is argued, advocated autonomous literary creation, and insisted on a high level of literary quality. Their intervention not only dramatically changed the repertoire of Hebrew children's literature, but also the rules of literary discourse. The article suggests that, through the Modernists’ polemical efforts, Hebrew children's literature was able to free itself from its position as an apparatus controlled by the political-educational system and to become a dynamic and multi-layered field.


Author(s):  
Gábor Sulyok

AbstractThe history of the breach of treaties can be traced back to the ancient Near East. The relative abundance and diversity of contemporary sources attest that the breaking of treaty obligations must have been a rather persistent problem, and that such occurrences were regarded as events of utmost importance throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages. The present study strives to demonstrate how peoples of old may have perceived and reacted to the breach of treaties on the basis of selected writings—the Legend of Etana, the Indictment of Madduwatta, the Indictment of Mita, the plague prayers of Mursili and the Old Testament—that provide, beyond the exposition of actual or alleged facts, a deeper insight into the psychological and procedural aspects of the subject.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.Б. Бритаева

В представленной статье на материале произведений Музафера Дзасохова известного современного осетинского писателя, поэта, публициста, переводчика, рассматриваются художественные особенности лирической прозы, а именно, автобиографической повести в осетинской детской литературе. Повесть Весенние звезды (1973) и ее продолжение На берегу Уршдона Барагун (1981) стали началом эпопеи о жизни отдельно взятой семьи, а на их примере всей страны в тяжелые послевоенные годы. В качестве одной из важнейших констант художественного мира писателя рассматривается образ детства. В ходе анализа особое внимание уделяется преобладанию нравственного аспекта, актуализации проблемы регулятивно-воспитательной функции национального этикета, ценностно-нормативных ориентиров осетинской ментальности. С опорой на биографический и историко-генетический методы, основное внимание в исследовании акцентируется на темах послевоенного детства, роли семьи и общества в формировании нравственных ориентиров, в становлении личности, образе матери, теме памяти, а также на художественном осмыслении этих проблем и тем в автобиографических повестях писателя. Типологически воплощение детской темы в творчестве М. Дзасохова во многом опирается на традицию изображения детства в русской автобиографической прозе XX в. В заключительной части сформулированы выводы, отражающие особенности лирической прозы в творчестве М. Дзасохова, обозначено место автобиографических повестей автора в контексте осетинской детской литературы второй половины XX века.Актуальность и научная новизна работы обусловлены недостаточной исследованностью истории и проблем осетинской детской литературы. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы при написании истории осетинской детской литературы. The present article examines the artistic features of lyrical prose, namely, autobiographical story in the Ossetian childrens literature in the works of Muzafer Dzasokhov, a well-known modern Ossetian writer, poet, publicist, translator. The story Spring Stars (1973) and its continuation - On the Bank of Ursdon Baragun ... (1981) marked the beginning of an epic about the life of a family, and via their fates the author shows life of the whole country in the difficult post-war years. The theme of childhood is considered as one of the most important constants of the writers artistic world. In the course of the analysis, special attention is paid to the predominance of the moral aspect, the actualization of the problem of the regulatory and educational function of national etiquette, the value and normative guidelines of the Ossetian mentality. The focus of the study is based on biographical and historical-genetic methods and highlights the themes of post-war childhood, the role of the family and society in the formation of moral guidelines, in the formation of personality, the image of the mother, the theme of memory, as well as on the artistic understanding of these problems and topics in autobiographical novels of the writer. Typologically, the embodiment of the childrens theme in the works of M. Dzasokhov is largely based on the tradition of depicting childhood in Russian autobiographical prose of the XXth century. The formulated conclusions in the final part reflect the peculiarities of lyrical prose in the works of M. Dzasokhov, the place of the authors autobiographical stories is indicated in the context of Ossetian childrens literature of the second half of the XXth century. The relevance and scientific novelty of the work are due to insufficient research on the history and problems of Ossetian childrens literature. The results of the study can be used in writing the history of Ossetian childrens literature.


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