Suspended Animation: Childrens Picture Books and the Fairy Tale of Modernity

(Paperback)

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Description

Through a combination of nostalgia and new printing technologies, picture book publishing in America became a popular enterprise between the wars. Suspended Animation analyzes the phenomenon of American picture books and what their imaginative form and content reveal about the modern nation. Children's picture books are at once fairy tales that uphold middle-class traditions and modern commodities that teach children about their changing world.

Reviews

"'Deeply researched and richly illustrated, Suspended Animation foregrounds the crucial and contentious role of the childrens picture book in a conflicted twentieth century. It highlights the tug of nostalgic innocence against the complexities of industrialism, war, gender, and battles for ideological dominationwith the stakes nothing less than actions and beliefs of the generation(s) of the future." Cecelia Tichi, Vanderbilt University

"Lavishly illustrated, this panorama of picture books from the 1920s and 30s opens an expanse of brilliantly executed visual narratives that set the context for some of the most cherished landmarks of American childhood, from Millions of Cats to Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Much of the material we encounter in this book springs from a modernist New York between the wars, where experiments in drama, design, or dada had an impact on the design of picture books. Nathalie op de Beecks extended readings make us eager to explore the energetic, droll, technologically innovative texts for ourselves." Margaret R. Higonnet, University of Connecticut

Author Bio

Nathalie op de Beeck is associate professor of English at Pacific Lutheran University. Her scholarly projects include Little Machinery: A Critical Facsimile Edition.