Waking Sleeping Beauty Feminist Voices in Children's Novels

Abstract

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