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

Trites, Roberta

English

ISU ReD: Research and eData

MENTALITÉSOF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE:1991-2021Roberta Seelinger TritesDistinguished Professor of  EnglishIllinois State UniversityMENTALITÉS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: 1991-2021 Part 1: “Getting to 1991” Part 2: Mentalités, 1991 – 2001 Part 3: “2021 and Beyond”CHILDREN’S LITERATURE:THE GREAT EXCLUDED, VOL. 1, 1972 Excluded because of  it “simplicity”; “It lacks the verbal sophistication and complexity with which people in higher education have been traditionally trained to deal” It also lacks of  “clear critical standards”Francelia Butler, editor (ISU’s very own Prof. Taimi Ranta had an article entitled “What Finnish Children Read” in this issue)PRINCESS REDWING,WAMPANOAGNATION (CH LIT, VOL. 2, 1973)The Pueblo people were a peace loving, religious people, and by no means ignorant. If  the Spaniards had settled near them and not disturbed their way of  life, the Pueblos would never have rebelled.The Spaniards were cruel, greedy, and unjust in their treatment of  a people they found living in the valley of  the Rio Grande. They enslaved and killed unnecessarily the Pueblos, who took all they could stand of  this unjust treatment, then planned carefully their revolt. And they succeeded in their attempt to free themselves and live again as they chose. The thesis of  the book is that this is a big country and all people who want to live peacefully with their neighbors, with nature and with their God should be left to work out their own destiny. Disturbing them causes unhappiness on both sides, for you cannot keep someone in a ditch without staying in the ditch yourself  to keep him there, either in 1680 or in 1980.APPRECIATION, AESTHETICS, & AWARENESS, PAVING THE WAY FOR LITERARY THEORY1970s Appreciation Aesthetics Awareness: International concerns Gender concerns Censorship concerns (and a LOT about fairy-tales!)1980s (still more on fairy-tales, LOTS more) A growing awareness of  theoretical concerns, especially New Historicism Hugh Keenan edits a special issue of  Studies in the Literary Imagination , 1985 The road is paved for post-structural theorizingLITERARY THEORY, 1975 - 1991THE CULTURE WARS (1987… )March 1987 March 1987THE 1990 MLA IN CHICAGOOR, HOW JAN SUSINA AND RST METROBERTA TAKES AN EPIC AND EPOCHAL ROADTRIP (1988: Invited to join ChLA) February 13, 1991: Roberta receives job offer from ISU May 20, 1991 May 30 – June 2, 1991 ChLA is hosted in Hattiesburg, Mississippi An infamous southern fish-fry: Friday, May 31, 1991MENTALITÉS: ROD MCGILLISCH. LIT. ASSOC. QUARTERLY, FALL 1991 Attitude, outlook, or worldview “the increasing interest of  academics, particularly those in women's studies and the ‘new’ as well as traditional cultural historians, in children's literature as an essential key to the mentalités of  a given time and place….”   “The mentalités that appear to most interest critics and cultural historians at present are those which have to do with exclusion, whether unconscious or overt and whether based on gender, race, religion, or social class” (98).JAN AND ROBERTA TAKE CH.L.A. BY STORM (OR, WELL, SORT OF … ) Jan offered a job at ISU in February 1992 Theme: “The Child in the World” Patricia MacLachlan is one of  the keynote speakers Held at Trinity College in Connecticut which means we got to tour Mark Twain’s home (and George and I toured Alcott’s Orchard House, too) FUN TIMES IN HARTFORD, CT (1992)MENTALITÉ: FEMINISM I met Lissa Paul at the 1990 MLA; Starting in 1992, I taught her 1988 essay “Enigma Variations” multiple times, focusing on her analysis of  how women and children are entrapped in literature: Physically Linguistically Economically   The feminism I taught in my courses, along with my articles about Patricia MacLachlan, led me to develop a more positive than negative style of  feminist analysis for children’s and adolescent literature.MENTALITÉ: FEMINISMWAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY (1997)VOICEbeing able to speak and create artCHOICEhaving agency to take actionCOMMUNITY caring relationships with other femalesMENTALITÉ: FEMINISMBefore AfterMENTALITÉ: NARRATIVE THEORYDISTURBING THE UNIVERSE (2000) Influenced by Foucault, And his argument that “Power comes from everywhere.” YA lit is a socializing institution:The Parodox of  Authority;Death and sex;Everything I know about YA literature I learned from teaching ENG 375CH.L.A. Q: A BRIEF HISTORY Increasing interest in issues of  race Moore & MacCann’s “Cultural Pluralism” column (1986) Increasing interest in literary theory Perry Nodelman’s “Literary Theory and Children’s Literature” column (1988) Increasing interest in ecocriticism Special issue (1994) Increasing understanding of  ch lit as different from YA lit Special issue (1996) Increasing interest in international children’s literature Nikolajeva’s “International Column” (2002)CH.L.A. QUARTERLY:FROM GRAY (1999) TO RAINBOW (2000) TO JHUP (2004)MEANWHILE, AT CH.L.A… (1995-2005) 5 presidents: 5 presidents: AND THE NEXT DECADE (2006-2016) 9 presidents: 1 president: MENTALITÉ: PERSONAL NARRATIVE, WRITING, AND HEALINGA “narrative compass” is a story that inspires and shapes one’s life. Many women academics report having one.Mine is Little Women.MENTALITÉ: HISTORICISM Alcott (b. 1832); Mark Twain (b. 1835) First novels about childhoodromanticized their own youths: Little Women (1868/1869) Tom Sawyer (1876) Both wrote ideologically, reform-minded novels; Both turned a profit doing so, paving the way for U.S. ideologically progressive novels for youth.HISTORICISMMENTALITÉ: COGNITIVE NARRATOLOGYLITERARY CONCEPTUALIZATIONS OF GROWTH (2014)Influenced by Lakoff  and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By (1980)The prevalence of  “up is good” and “growing up”;Understanding ourselves as embodied mind.MENTALITÉ: COGNITIVE NARRATOLOGYMACKEY’S ONE CHILD READING (2016) Based on Mackey’s embodied learning of  literacy;  Writing the Foreword was an honor…  … but also helped me better understand the embodied mind as a function of  feminism. 21ST CENTURY FEMINISMS IN CHILDREN’S & ADOLESCENT LITERATURE  (2018)Cover art by Katharine Seelinger,Age 19MENTALITÉ: FEMINISMS21ST CENTURY FEMINISMS … (2018)Relies on many feminisms, including material feminism Women of  Color Feminism Ecofeminism (Feminist) Ethics of  CarePsychologyMarxist Literary TheoryCivil RightsEcostudiesCognitive StudiesEcofeminismPsycho-analysis & LacaniantheoryCognitive Literary StudiesMaterial Feminism3rd Wave FeminismCultural/ StandpointFeminismIdentity PoliticsRace StudiesMulticultural & Global FeminismsLiberal FeminismPsycho-analytic FeminismPLUS…THERE ARE many more!FEMINISMS ARE OUTLINED IN RED:Queer TheoryRadical FeminismMarxist FeminismVOICECHOICECOMMUNITYECOFEMINISMEMBODIMENTETHICAL CARING“Power comes from everywhere”  -- FoucaultTEACHING YOUNG ADULT LIT:CADDEN, COATS, TRITES, EDS. (2020)Theories, Themes & Issues Genres & Forms Assignments ResourcesU of  Antwerp2005, 2018Copenhagen2004Copenhagen2004Cambridge UK 2014Kyoto2007, 2017Osaka 2017Beijing & Qingdao2012Taipei 2012Taipei 2012Antwerp 20182021 AND BEYOND:  WORKING WITH SEAN P. CONNORSMENTALITÉSOF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE:1991-2021Roberta Seelinger TritesDistinguished Professor of  EnglishIllinois State University

Mentalités of Children’s Literature: 1991-2021

https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?filename=0&article=1000&context=lenskilecture&type=additional

Mentalités of Children’s Literature: 1991-2021

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