The aim of this article is to trace the literary historiography of the Bengali "rupkatha" or the fairy tale. It is a conscious decision to use the two terms--"rupkatha" and fairy tale interchangeably in the paper because it has been argued that the genre of the Bengali "rupkatha" received its shape and form in…

Modern children's literature in China has largely been dominated by narratives of the nation and nationalism. The present article sets out to question the dominance of that nationalist stance as the country transitioned into the modern era in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By examining poetic children's literature, the author…

Between 1961 and 1984 the renowned New Zealand writer, Margaret Mahy, wrote over seventy-five pieces for the "School Journal" (a graded reading book provided free to New Zealand primary schools since its inception in 1907). It was a liberal humanist period in New Zealand education during which the 1940s' and 1950s' rolling reforms…

Explains that in "The Amber Spyglass," Philip Pullman extends the psychological depth of literature for young readers by presenting in palpable terms a confrontation with death met by the human capacity for dealing creatively, through story, with personal mortality. Contends that Pullman's portrayal of the power of storytelling is placed within…

Developmentalism and Romanticism represent contrary poles in an absolutist dichotomy that frames most Western discourse on childhood. This opposition is generally recognized in current childhood studies but the former discourse still dominates institutional practices. Both views, however, rely on similar presumptions--that development is a linear…

This article considers the extent to which medieval "mappaemundi" are an important precedent for literary cartographies in fiction for children. It connects the notion of embeddedness to Peta Mitchell's (2011) suggestion that "mappaemundi" refused to entertain the later, post-Enlightenment cartographic distinction between…

The style of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" arises from an alternative vision and choice of values characteristic of romance. Romance seeks fulfillment beyond the consequences of everyday relationships and the constrictions of ordinary life. Causal relationships give way to lists of independent items, unmotivated outcomes, and…

Examines the Christian, humanist, and romantic dimensions of "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson. (HOD)

Discusses the vision of harmony in the memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder and argues that her books are more nearly romance than fiction. (HOD)

Offers a rereading of Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden," finding in it the triumph of Apollonian male rationalism over the Dionysian female cult of nature. Examines images of primitivism and wildness in the book, connecting them to polarities in conceptions of primitivism. (SR)

Examines issues about the representation of children in art during the 18th and 19th centuries: (1) main representations during this period; (2) principal influences affecting the construction of these images; and (3) whether the verbal and visual arts conceptualize childhood in similar or different ways. Looks at three influences on writers and…