Philosophy for Children

Emphasizing the contributions of Matthew Lipman and Gareth Matthews, Chapter 1 examines the P4C movement, which promotes the idea that both children and children’s literature have philosophical tendencies. For P4C, to think philosophically means to think both critically and creatively. This vision of philosophy aligns with a similar understanding of theory. P4C got its start in the United States and has since spread to other countries and continents. At one point there were reportedly 5,000 P4C programs in the United States alone. P4C is enjoying a recent resurgence and continues to be influential worldwide. Chapter 1 examines the evolving use of children’s literature in P4C, as a way of understanding the mutualities of children’s literature and philosophy. P4C has helped to establish children’s literature as philosophical and ethical engagement, linking it with progressive education and children’s rights. It promises also to keep philosophy fresh for practitioners and the larger public. Contemporary PwC (philosophy with children) gives priority to the use of picturebooks.

Literature for Minors

Chapter 3 entertains the idea that children’s literature might also be called a literature for minors, and even a minor literature as conceptualized by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Children are legally minors, but adults can be minors too, culturally if not also legally. Such an understanding of children’s literature broadens our sense of its purpose. The chapter begins with Walter Benjamin’s attention to childhood and children’s forms as a baseline for critical thinking about “minors.” It then traces the reception history of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, the Anglophone children’s classic that most closely approaches recognition as theory. Finally, the chapter explores the idea that some children’s literature functions as queer theory for kids, discussing a wide range of texts including A Series of Unfortunate Events. The chapter concludes with a reading of Alison Bechdel’s memoir Are You My Mother?, seemingly for adults but preoccupied with queer childhood.

Theory for Beginners

As Chapter 2 emphasizes, theory isn’t merely interested in but also self-presents as a beginner. Theory is concerned with the beginner in part because theory needs beginners; theory cannot otherwise reproduce. The chapter first considers the tendency of certain strains of theory to present as for children or beginners. The chapter then turns to illustrated guides to theory, which launched in the 1960s and are still going strong. That material is theory-adjacent and may even qualify as theory itself. Taking creative as well as critical form, the graphic guides seek to encourage and amplify curiosity. The guides also had origin in leftist comic book writing in Mexico. The first such title was Cuba Para Principiantes, or Cuba for Beginners (1970), by the Mexican cartoonist and comic book artist Eduardo del Río, pseudonym Rius. The guides constitute a multimodal literature for beginners with links to imagetext genres for children. They raise fascinating questions about knowledge production and help us broaden the story of theory’s career in the United States, beyond accounts of “French theory.” The chapter concludes with some anecdotes of use.

Introduction: Children's Literature Otherwise

Opening with quick readings of A Child’s Guide to Freud (1963) and Communism for Kids (2014), the introduction outlines the topics and concerns of the book and provides a discussion of how theory and philosophy are treated in this context and have been conceptualized more generally. It introduces philosophy for children or P4C and explains what “theory for beginners” means. Also described is the philosophical turn in children’s literature studies, a turn this book both analyzes and encourages. The last section reviews theoretical and critical work on childhood and addresses concerns that theorists and philosophers too often and easily speak for children rather than listen to them. The introduction also makes a case for “wonder” and emphasizes the book’s alignment with childhood studies.