Children's Literature and the Fin de Sicle

(Hardback)

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Description

Expert contributors examine fin de siecle tensions in 19th- and 20th-century children's literature from around the world. The close of a century invites both retrospection and prognostication. As a period of transition, it also brings a sense of uncertainty, finality, and apocalypticism. These feelings stem from various events, such as political turmoil, scientific advancements, and social change. As might be expected, literature reflects such changes and the feelings they engender. But perhaps more surprisingly, children's literature is especially sensitive to such matters, and fiction for children often struggles with dark and unpleasant issues. This book examines fin de siecle tensions in 19th- and 20th-century children's literature from around the world. Each chapter is written by an expert contributor, and the volume ranges over a disparate variety of topics. These include poetry, series books, pacifist fiction, gender issues, religion and literature, ecocriticism, minority experiences, humor and the Holocaust, fantasy and science fiction, and computer culture. In exploring these issues in relation to children's literature, the contributors reveal the shifting nature of our values and the world in which we live. Global in nature, the chapters look at children's literature from such places as Germany, Holland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States.

Reviews

[p]resents a satisfying survey of children's literature in its many incarnations throughout the world...A fine set of considerations on evolving trends and characters in kids' literature.-Library Bookwatch
These essays cohere around the belief that at the end of a century, people have a general interest in ideas encapsulated in that period; as McGillis observes in the introduction, the book "sounds a millennium ring; more than this it has apocalyptic implications." A particular value of this book is its inclusion of international children's literature. Included are articles on Dutch children's poetry, German pacifist literature, Italian adventure novels, Slovene science fiction, and Australian young adult fiction....Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.-Choice
"presents a satisfying survey of children's literature in its many incarnations throughout the world...A fine set of considerations on evolving trends and characters in kids' literature."-Library Bookwatch
"[p]resents a satisfying survey of children's literature in its many incarnations throughout the world...A fine set of considerations on evolving trends and characters in kids' literature."-Library Bookwatch
"These essays cohere around the belief that at the end of a century, people have a general interest in ideas encapsulated in that period; as McGillis observes in the introduction, the book "sounds a millennium ring; more than this it has apocalyptic implications." A particular value of this book is its inclusion of international children's literature. Included are articles on Dutch children's poetry, German pacifist literature, Italian adventure novels, Slovene science fiction, and Australian young adult fiction....Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above."-Choice

Author Bio

RODERICK MCGILLIS is Professor of English at the University of Calgary.