Mentalités of Children’s Literature: 1991-2021

In this lecture Distinguished Professor of English Dr. Roberta Seelinger Trites offers a retrospective look at the evolution of the study of children’s literature during her 30 year career as a teacher and scholar at Illinois State University. Trites’ presentation covers the changing nature of the scholarly study of Children’s Literature as well as a discussion of her own contributions to the field.https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/lenskilecture/1000/thumbnail.jp

Construing the child reader: a cognitive stylistic analysis of the opening to Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book (2009) charts the story of Nobody Owens, a boy who is adopted by supernatural entities in the local graveyard after his family is murdered. This article draws on the notion of the “construed reader,” and combines two cognitive stylistic frameworks to analyse the opening section of the novel. In doing so, the article explores the representation and significance of the family home in relation to what follows in the narrative. The analysis largely draws on Text World Theory (Werth, 1999; Gavins, 2007), but also integrates some aspects of Cognitive Grammar (Langacker, 2008), which allows for a more nuanced discussion of textual features. The article pays particular attention to the way Gaiman frames his narrative and positions his reader to view the fictional events from a distinctive vantage point and subsequently demonstrates that a stylistic analysis of children’s literature can lay bare how such writing is designed with a young readership in mind

Excavating Childhood: Fairytales, Monsters and Abuse Survival in Lynda Barry’s What It Is

This article investigates the excavation of abused childhood in Lynda Barry’s What It Is. Looking at the centrality of childish play, fairy tales and the Gorgon in the protagonist’s effort to cope with maternal abuse, it argues that comics complicate the life narrative and allow the feminist reconfiguration of the monstrous mother of Western psychoanalysis and art

Maria Nikolajeva Reading for Learning: Cognitive Approaches to Children’s Literature

Recension/Revie

Waking Sleeping Beauty Feminist Voices in Children's Novels

The Sleeping Beauty in Roberta Seelinger Trites' intriguing text is no silent snoozer passively waiting for Prince Charming to energize her life. Instead she wakes up all by herself and sets out to redefine the meaning of "happily ever after." Trites investigates the many ways that Sleeping Beauty's newfound voice has joined other strong female voices in feminist children's novels to generate equal potentials for all children. Waking Sleeping Beauty explores issues of voice in a wide range of children's novels, including books by Virginia Hamilton, Patricia MacLachlan, and Cynthia Voight as well as many multicultural and international books. Far from being a limiting genre that praises females at the expense of males, the feminist children's novel seeks to communicate an inclusive vision of politics, gender, age, race, and class. By revising former stereotypes of children's literature and replacing them with more complete images of females in children's books, Trites encourages those involved with children's literature-teachers, students, writers, publishers, critics, librarian, booksellers, and parents-to be aware of the myriad possibilities of feminist expression. Roberta Trites focuses on the positive aspects of feminism: on the ways females interact through family and community relationships, on the ways females have revised patriarchal images, and on the ways female writers use fictional constructs to transmit their ideologies to readers. She thus provides a framework that allows everyone who enters a classroom with a children's book in hand to recognize and communicate-with an optimistic, reality-based sense of "happily ever after"-the politics and the potential of that book.Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Defining the Feminist Children's Novel -- 2. Subverting Stereotypes: Rejecting Traditional Gender Roles -- 3. Subjectivity as a Gender Issue: Metaphors and Intertextuality -- 4. Transforming Feminine Silence: Pro/claiming Female Voices -- 5. Re/constructing the Female Writer: Subjectivity in the Feminist Künstlerroman -- 6. Female Interdependency: Literal and Metaphoric Sisterhood -- 7. Refuting Freud: Mother/Daughter Relationships -- 8. Metafiction and the Politics of Identity: Narrativity, Subjectivity, and Community -- 9. Afterword: Feminist Pedagogy and Children's Literature -- Notes -- Bibliography -- IndexThe Sleeping Beauty in Roberta Seelinger Trites' intriguing text is no silent snoozer passively waiting for Prince Charming to energize her life. Instead she wakes up all by herself and sets out to redefine the meaning of "happily ever after." Trites investigates the many ways that Sleeping Beauty's newfound voice has joined other strong female voices in feminist children's novels to generate equal potentials for all children. Waking Sleeping Beauty explores issues of voice in a wide range of children's novels, including books by Virginia Hamilton, Patricia MacLachlan, and Cynthia Voight as well as many multicultural and international books. Far from being a limiting genre that praises females at the expense of males, the feminist children's novel seeks to communicate an inclusive vision of politics, gender, age, race, and class. By revising former stereotypes of children's literature and replacing them with more complete images of females in children's books, Trites encourages those involved with children's literature-teachers, students, writers, publishers, critics, librarian, booksellers, and parents-to be aware of the myriad possibilities of feminist expression. Roberta Trites focuses on the positive aspects of feminism: on the ways females interact through family and community relationships, on the ways females have revised patriarchal images, and on the ways female writers use fictional constructs to transmit their ideologies to readers. She thus provides a framework that allows everyone who enters a classroom with a children's book in hand to recognize and communicate-with an optimistic, reality-based sense of "happily ever after"-the politics and the potential of that book.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries