The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature

The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature PDF Author: Maria Nikolajeva
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 146167350X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Now available in paperback! Until now, there was no theoretical research of character in children's fiction and very few comprehensive theoretical studies of literary characters in general. In her latest intellectual foray, the author of From Mythic to Linear ponders the art of characterization. Through a variety of critical perspectives, she uncovers the essential differences between story ('what we are told') and discourse ('how we are told'), and carefully distinguishes between how these are employed in children's fiction and in general fiction. Yet another masterful work by a leading figure in contemporary criticism.

The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature

The Rhetoric of Character in Children's Literature PDF Author: Maria Nikolajeva
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 146167350X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
Now available in paperback! Until now, there was no theoretical research of character in children's fiction and very few comprehensive theoretical studies of literary characters in general. In her latest intellectual foray, the author of From Mythic to Linear ponders the art of characterization. Through a variety of critical perspectives, she uncovers the essential differences between story ('what we are told') and discourse ('how we are told'), and carefully distinguishes between how these are employed in children's fiction and in general fiction. Yet another masterful work by a leading figure in contemporary criticism.

At Arm's Length

At Arm's Length PDF Author: Mike Cadden
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781496834614
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
"Literary critics and authors have long argued about the importance or unimportance of an author's relationship to readers. What can be said about the rhetorical relationship that exists between author and reader? How do authors manipulate character, specifically, to modulate the emotional appeal of character so a reader will feel empathy, awe, even delight? In At Arm's Length: A Rhetoric of Character in Children's and Young Adult Literature, Mike Cadden takes a rhetorical approach that complements structural, affective, and cognitive readings. The study offers a detailed examination of the ways authorial choice results in emotional invitation. Cadden sounds the modulation of characters along a continuum from those larger than life and awe inspiring to the life-sized and empathetic, down to the pitiable and ridiculous, and all those spaces between. Cadden examines how authors alternate between holding the young reader at arm's length from and drawing them into emotional intensity. This balance and modulation are key to a rhetorical understanding of character in literature, film, and television for the young. Written in accessible language and of interest and use to undergraduates and seasoned critics, At Arm's Length provides a broad analysis of stories for the young child and young adult, in book, film, and television. Throughout, Cadden touches on important topics in children's literature studies, including the role of safety in children's media, as well as character in multicultural and diverse literature. In addition to treating "traditional" works, he analyzes special cases-forms, including picture books, verse novels, and graphic novels, and modes like comedy, romance, and tragedy"--

The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature

The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature PDF Author: David Rudd
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134028245
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature is a vibrant and authoritative exploration of children’s literature in all its manifestations. It features a series of essays written by expert contributors who provide an illuminating examination of why children’s literature is the way it is. Topics covered include: the history and development of children's literature various theoretical approaches used to explore the texts, including narratological methods questions of gender and sexuality along with issues of race and ethnicity realism and fantasy as two prevailing modes of story-telling picture books, comics and graphic novels as well as ‘young adult’ fiction and the ‘crossover’ novel media adaptations and neglected areas of children’s literature. The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature contains suggestions for further reading throughout plus a helpful timeline and a substantial glossary of key terms and names, both established and more cutting-edge. This is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to an increasingly complex and popular discipline.

At Arm’s Length

At Arm’s Length PDF Author: Mike Cadden
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
ISBN: 1496834607
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
Literary critics and authors have long argued about the importance or unimportance of an author’s relationship to readers. What can be said about the rhetorical relationship that exists between author and reader? How do authors manipulate character, specifically, to modulate the emotional appeal of character so a reader will feel empathy, awe, even delight? In At Arm’s Length: A Rhetoric of Character in Children's and Young Adult Literature, Mike Cadden takes a rhetorical approach that complements structural, affective, and cognitive readings. The study offers a detailed examination of the ways authorial choice results in emotional invitation. Cadden sounds the modulation of characters along a continuum from those larger than life and awe inspiring to the life sized and empathetic, down to the pitiable and ridiculous, and all those spaces between. Cadden examines how authors alternate between holding the young reader at arm’s length from and drawing them into emotional intensity. This balance and modulation are key to a rhetorical understanding of character in literature, film, and television for the young. Written in accessible language and of interest and use to undergraduates and seasoned critics, At Arm’s Length provides a broad analysis of stories for the young child and young adult, in book, film, and television. Throughout, Cadden touches on important topics in children’s literature studies, including the role of safety in children’s media, as well as character in multicultural and diverse literature. In addition to treating “traditional” works, he analyzes special cases—forms, including picture books, verse novels, and graphic novels, and modes like comedy, romance, and tragedy.

The Bloomsbury Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature

The Bloomsbury Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature PDF Author: Karen Coats
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472575555
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 457

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Book Description
From Maria Edgeworth, Dr Seuss and Lewis Carroll to Sherman Alexie, Sharon Flake, and Gene Luen Yang, this is a comprehensive introduction to studying the infinitely varied worlds of literature for children and young adults. Exploring a diverse range of writing, The Bloomsbury Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature includes: - Chapters covering key genres and forms from fiction, nonfiction, and poetry to picture books, graphic novels and fairy tales - A history of changing ideas of childhood and adolescence - Coverage of psychological, educational and literary theoretical approaches - Practical guidance on researching, reading and writing about children's and young adult literature - Explorations of children's and young adult film, TV and new media In addition, “Extending Your Study” sections at the end of each chapter provide advice on further reading, writing, discussion and online resources as well as case study responses from writers and teachers in the field. Accessibly written for both students new to the subject and experienced teachers, this is the most comprehensive single volume introduction to the study of writing for young people.

Children's Literature as Communication

Children's Literature as Communication PDF Author: Roger D. Sell
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027297290
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
In this book, members of the ChiLPA Project explore the children’s literature of several different cultures, ranging from ancient India, nineteenth century Russia, and the Soviet Union, to twentieth century Britain, America, Australia, Sweden, and Finland. The research covers not only the form and content of books for children, but also their potential social functions, especially within education. These two perspectives are brought together within a theory of children’s literature as one among other forms of communication, an approach that sees the role of literary scholars, critics and teachers as one of mediation. Part I deals with the way children’s writers and picturebook-makers draw on a culture’s available resources of orality, literacy, intertextuality, and image. Part II examines their negotiation of major issues such as the child adult distinction, gender, politics, and the Holocaust. Part III discusses children’s books as used within language education programmes, with particular attention to young readers’ pragmatic processing of differences between the context of writing and their own context of reading.

Comparative Children's Literature

Comparative Children's Literature PDF Author: Emer O'Sullivan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134404859
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
WINNER OF THE 2007 CHLA BOOK AWARD! Children's literature has transcended linguistic and cultural borders since books and magazines for young readers were first produced, with popular books translated throughout the world. Emer O'Sullivan traces the history of comparative children's literature studies, from the enthusiastic internationalism of the post-war period – which set out from the idea of a supra-national world republic of childhood – to modern comparative criticism. Drawing on the scholarship and children's literature of many cultures and languages, she outlines the constituent areas that structure the field, including contact and transfer studies, intertextuality studies, intermediality studies and image studies. In doing so, she provides the first comprehensive overview of this exciting new research area. Comparative Children's Literature also links the fields of narratology and translation studies, to develop an original and highly valuable communicative model of translation. Taking in issues of children's 'classics', the canon and world literature for children, Comparative Children's Literature reveals that this branch of literature is not as genuinely international as it is often fondly assumed to be and is essential reading for those interested in the consequences of globalization on children's literature and culture.

Children's Biographies of African American Women

Children's Biographies of African American Women PDF Author: Sara C. VanderHaagen
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611179165
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
A study of how rhetoric has shaped the life stories of African American role models in children's literature In Children's Biographies of African American Women: Rhetoric, Public Memory, and Agency Sara C. VanderHaagen examines how these biographies encourage young readers to think about themselves as agents in a public world. Specifically VanderHaagen illustrates how these works use traditional means to serve progressive ends and thereby examines the rhetorical power of biography in shaping identity and promoting public action. Drawing on scholarship in rhetoric, memory studies, and children's literature, VanderHaagen presents rhetorical analyses of biographies of three African American women—poet Phillis Wheatley, activist Sojourner Truth, and educator-turned-politician Shirley Chisholm—published in the United States during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. VanderHaagen begins by analyzing how biographical sketches in books for black children published during the 1920s represent Wheatley and Truth. The study then shifts to books published between 1949 and 2015. VanderHaagen uses a concept adapted from philosopher Paul Ricoeur—the idea of the "agential spiral"—to chart the ways that biographies have used rhetoric to shape the life stories of Wheatley, Truth, and Chisholm. By bringing a critical, rhetorical perspective to the study of biographies for children, this book advances the understanding of how lives of the past are used persuasively to shape identity and encourage action in the contemporary public world. VanderHaagen contributes to the study of rhetoric and African American children's literature and refocuses the field of memory studies on children's biographies, a significant but often-overlooked genre through which public memories first take shape.

The Hidden Adult

The Hidden Adult PDF Author: Perry Nodelman
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 0801895340
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 622

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Book Description
What exactly is a children’s book? How is children’s literature defined as a genre? A leading scholar presents close readings of six classic stories to answer these questions and offer a clear definition of children’s writing as a distinct literary form. Perry Nodelman begins by considering the plots, themes, and structures of six works: "The Purple Jar," Alice in Wonderland, Dr. Doolittle, Henry Huggins, The Snowy Day, and Plain City—all written for young people of varying ages in different times and places—to identify shared characteristics. He points out markers in each work that allow the adult reader to understand it as a children’s story, shedding light on ingrained adult assumptions and revealing the ways in which adult knowledge and experience remain hidden in apparently simple and innocent texts. Nodelman then engages a wide range of views of children's literature from authors, literary critics, cultural theorists, and specialists in education and information sciences. Through this informed dialogue, Nodelman develops a comprehensive theory of children's literature, exploring its commonalities and shared themes. The Hidden Adult is a focused and sophisticated analysis of children’s literature and a major contribution to the theory and criticism of the genre.

Childhood, Literature and Science

Childhood, Literature and Science PDF Author: Jutta Ahlbeck
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351983016
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
How do we understand, imagine and remember childhood? In what ways do cultural representations and scientific discourses meet in their ways of portraying children? Childhood, Literature and Science aims to answer these questions by tracing how images of childhood(s) and children in Western modernity are entangled with notions of innocence and fragility, but also with sin and evilness. Indeed, this interdisciplinary collection investigates how different child figures emerge or disappear in imaginative and social representations, in the memories of adult selves, and in expert knowledge. Questions about childhood in Western modernity, culture and science are also addressed through insightful analysis of a variety of materials from the Enlightenment age to the present day – such as fiction, life narratives, visual images, scientific texts and public writings. Analysing childhood as a discursive construction, Childhood, Literature and Science will appeal to scholars as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in fields such as: Childhood Studies, History, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Literature and Sociology of the Family.