This thesis is a study of the representations of childhood in the works of the family circle of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin and their intellectual inheritors, Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley. It argues that their literary representations of the child, as a group, form an index of their political resistance to the dominant cultures of their era. The thesis situates these representations of childhood against the backdrop of the Romantic-era cultural celebration of childhood as established in works by historians and critics such as Philippe Ariés and James McGavran, Jr. It argues that the new sentimental category of the child established in the writings of Rousseau and Wordsworth, paradoxically, tends to marginalise the child from the socially powerful world of adults, even while establishing the child’s new specificity. This ethical impasse is resolved by the Wollstonecraft-Godwin family circle through its literary representations of the child, where the child becomes a shifting metaphor for all socially oppressed groups. Moreover, the adult author invites the child to participate in the world of adult power, eschewing a totalising adult perspective that erases the child’s specific concerns. This thesis tracks the development of the versions of the child in the works of the Wollstonecraft-Godwin family circle, from their early, discursive, political works such as Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Godwin’s Political Justice, where they represent their late-eighteenth century ideals of political emancipation through the education of the child, to more imaginative versions of the child in their later works. I locate a moment in each writer’s career at which the adult-child divide observed in their early works collapses: their doubts about rationalist epistemology crystallise, and they switch to open-ended modes of discourse in literary genres such as novels, which allow more freedom for the coded expression of radical political ideas through the representations of the child. In their later works, especially in Godwin’s radical publications for children, the adult-child hierarchy is dissolved: the child becomes a complex metaphor, representing the varied political concerns of disempowered adults and children. The discussion concludes with a sketch of the imaginative appropriation and transformation of the Wollstonecraft-Godwin representations by the Shelleys. Mary Shelley, and to a lesser extent, Percy Bysshe Shelley, adapt the radicalism of their predecessors’ literary representations of the child to suit their own altered socio-political contexts.

This thesis names the Oxford School of children’s fantasy literature as arising from the educational milieu of the University of Oxford’s English School during the mid-twentieth century. It argues that J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis lay the foundations for the children’s fantasy genre by introducing an English curriculum at Oxford in 1931 (first examined 1933) that required extensive study in medieval literature, and by modelling the use of medieval source material in their own popular children’s fantasy works. The Oxford School’s creative use of its sources produces medieval ‘afterlives,’ lending the Middle Ages new relevance in popular culture. This research directly compares medieval literature to children’s fantasy works by Tolkien, Lewis, and four other Oxford-educated children’s fantasy authors in order to reveal the genre’s debt to actual medieval texts and to the Oxford English syllabus in particular. The four authors are Susan Cooper, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Diana Wynne Jones, and Philip Pullman. This thesis situates the tendencies of medievalised children’s fantasy in relation to Lewis and Tolkien’s personal and scholarly convictions about the patriotic, moral, and aesthetic qualities of medieval literature and folklore. Building on the theories of Michel de Certeau, this thesis demonstrates how Oxford School fantasy produces new mythologies for England and argues that, as children’s literature, these works have an implicit didactic function that echoes that of the English School curriculum. This thesis traces the attempts of some Oxford School authors to navigate or explode generic conventions by drawing upon new source material, and contends that the structures and hierarchies that underpin the genre reassert themselves even in texts that set out to refute them. It suggests that such returns to the norm can produce pleasure and invite diverse reading, growing out of the intertextual associations of each new rewriting.

The subject of this thesis is the German writer and Prague citizen Oskar Wiener, one of the city's lesser known authors from the turn of the 20th century. Special attention is paid to the author's writing for children, works that play a significant role is his overall creative output. The first chapter formulates the subject matter and establishes the goals of the thesis. The second chapter takes a look at the life of Oskar Wiener through the use of archive material, the recollections of friends and autobiographical elements in Wiener's work. The third chapter discusses German literature in Prague at the turn of the 20th century, including the historical background and a presentation of the literary groups of this period, especially the Jung Prag group and its literary tendencies. The fourth chapter is devoted to the Prague neo-romantics, a group to which Oskar Wiener belonged. The fifth chapter provides a brief overview of Wiener's overall work, with an emphasis on his activities as collector and agent. The sixth and seventh chapters then take a closer look at Wiener's writing for children: chapter six introduces his specific works and chapter seven places them in the general context of modern pedagogy. The final chapter summarises the results and insights of the thesis. Keywords Oskar Wiener,...

The thesis aims to investigate to what extent and how is the multicultural society reflected in contemporary Dutch children's literature and how the authors deal with the issue of multiculturalism. The theoretical part explains important terms and describes the current social situation in the Netherlands. Than follows an overview of the evolution of immigration to the Netherlands and an analysis of topics related to multicultural problematics. At the end of theoretical part is briefly described the concept of children's literature and defined the area of the research. The practical section first describes the methodology that is followed by an analysis of eight books. The results part discusses the findings of the research.

Kubova, Katerina: Language and Style of Underground Children's Books: The Thesis. Prague: The Faculty of Arts of The Charles University, Institute of Czech Language and Theory of Communication, 2011. Thesis Advisor: Prof. PhDr. Petr Mares, CSc. This thesis aims to examine the linguistic and stylistic aspects of Czech underground literature for children. In the first part, it focuses on the specifics of children's literature and on the term "child aspect" which serves as a criterion for further analysis of selected texts. The thesis also presents selected writers of children's literature and their work. The linguistic and stylistic analysis is largely based on the book Současná stylistika (The Contemporary Czech Stylistics), which characterizes the individual linguistic levels of a fictional text. Texts for children, written by Egond Bondy and Ivan Martin Jirous, the most prominent figures of the Czech cultural underground of the 1970's and 1980's, are analyzed. Finally, the linguistic and stylistic features of the samizdat anthology Čert má kopyto… (The Devil Has a Hoof…), which represents a sum of the Czech underground literature for children, are examined, determining texts that meet both the criterion of the children's literature and the criterion of the underground poetics, and therefore...

The huge popularity of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels and Philip Pullman’s challenging trilogy His Dark Materials flagged up a widening audience and increasing status for children’s literature in the West. As Sandra Beckett (2009) notes, children’s fiction is now being embraced with enthusiasm by adult readers, writers, critics and publishers. From this increased profile there has emerged the distinct publishing category of ‘crossover’ fiction. In contrast to earlier children’s novels with broad audience appeal, contemporary crossover works are noted for their contextually radical resistance to conventions and bold innovations in content, style and form. Whilst this has given rise to greater critical interest, however, the focus in general has been on adult authored fiction, rather than the now growing body of work being produced and promoted by children and adolescents themselves. In effect, adult critics and reviewers either exclude or take for granted young authors’ fictions as being formulaic and/or lightweight. The purpose of this study has been to investigate the implications of this stance. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s (1965) theory of carnival and its associated concepts, I have conducted a comparative analysis of published fiction by adult and teenage authors whose works have been identified as subversive and/or marketed as crossover texts. A Bakhtinian perspective on style, structure and themes in each confirms, or otherwise, their radical status before consideration is given to the implications of any differences in approach. Given John Stephens’ (1999) observation that boundaries between children’s and adults’ fiction are more fundamentally blurred in the fantasy and sub-fantasy modes, the influence of genre has been investigated too. My findings indicate that radical texts with broad audience appeal can, in fact, arise through a variety of narrative forms and writing styles and regardless of authorial age. At the same time, characteristic differences in ‘perspectives’ are shown to mark off adolescent from adult authors’ works. I conclude that the young writers’ near-perspectives can produce hybrid fictions which might be understood as breaking new ground. The fresh insights this study contributes, then, demonstrate that any comprehensive account of the vibrant and ever-shifting contemporary literary scene must encompass broader and altogether more considered critical review of young adults’ input than has been offered to-date.

In the early 1980s, a particular kind of “tween” (children aged 10-14) ghost story emerged. Through examining multiple examples of tween ghost stories (such as Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn, Stonewords by Pam Conrad, and Time Windows by Kathryn Reiss), this paper illustrates the ways in which these stories are remarkably consistent in nature, and then investigates this sub-genre’s specific and consistent articulation of the struggle of moving away from childhood and into the teenage years. By using a ghost to create a situation so off balance (a ghost who is stuck, a protagonist who is in flux), the tween ghost story is uniquely and cleverly designed to help the protagonist navigate through the scary situation of growing up.

Orientador: João Luís Cardoso Tápias Ceccantini / Banca: Lia Cupertino Duarte Albino / Banca: Alba Krishna Topan Feldman / Banca: Cleide Antonia Rapucci / Banca: Luciana Brito / Resumo: Este trabalho é resultado de uma pesquisa realizada sobre a obra infantojuvenil de Nilma Gonçalves Lacerda (1948), tendo por objetivos centrais apresentar um panorama geral de sua produção para crianças e jovens e discutir a representação da morte em algumas de suas narrativas. Propõe-se uma reflexão sobre como a perspectiva da morte está associada à ideia de transformação na vida das personagens, investigando as singularidades do projeto estético da escritora, que iniciou sua produção em 1985 e permanece em atividade até hoje. Na tese, procura-se ainda atentar para a questão da abordagem do tema da morte em obras voltadas a um público leitor específico, ainda jovem e em plena formação. As análises concentraram-se sobretudo no seguinte conjunto de narrativas: Manual de Tapeçaria (1985); Dois passos pássaros. E o voo arcanjo (1987); Viver é feito à mão. Viver é risco em vermelho (1989); Um dente de leite, um saco de ossinhos (2004); Bárbara Debaixo da Chuva (2010) e Sortes de Villamor (2010). O primeiro capítulo apresenta uma breve biografia da escritora e sua fortuna crítica, levando-se em conta também dados obtidos em uma entrevista realizada com Nilma Gonçalves Lacerda especialmente para a presente pesquisa. O segundo capítulo realiza uma abordagem panorâmica da literatura infantojuvenil brasileira contemporânea buscando situar a autora histórica e esteticamente nesse subsistema literário, com fundamentação teórica em textos de Antonio Candido, Regina Zilberman, Marisa Lajolo ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The aim of this work is to present the results of a research conducted within the juvenile literature work of Nilma Gonçalves Lacerda (1948). The main objectives are: showing a general view of her production for children and young adults in order to discuss the role of death in her narratives. A reflection upon the perspective of death associated with the idea of transformation in the lives of the characteres is proposed, connected with the investigation of the singularities of the aesthetic project of Lacerda, who has started her production in 1985. This thesis is focused on the approach given to death in the work whose audience is too young and is still growing. The analysis concentrates mainly in this set of narratives: Manual de Tapeçaria (1985); Dois passos pássaros. E o voo arcanjo (1987); Viver é feito à mão. Viver é risco em vermelho (1989); Um dente de leite, um saco de ossinhos (2004); Bárbara Debaixo da Chuva (2010) e Sortes de Villamor (2010). The first chapter presents a brief biografh of Lacerda and her critical fortune; it also takes into acccount pieces of an interview made with Nilma Gonçalves Lacerda for this research. The second chapter has a panoramic view of the Brazilian Contenporary Young Children Literature which focus on the history and aesthetics of this literary segment based on the works of Antonio Candido, Regina Zilberman, Marisa Lajolo, Vera Teixeira de Aguiar, Edmir Perrotti, João Luís Ceccantini and Larissa W..F..Cruvinel. Futhermore, it presents a perspective of the history of the Western Young Children Literature regarding death and the approach given to it. It also takes into consideration the work of Lia ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

<p>This dissertation defines the literary genre of the American school story for girls from approximately 1845 to 1910. While recent critical studies have examined the American common school story or the women’s college novel, no scholar has surveyed the genre of American school stories for girls in the second half of the nineteenth century. Instead, the British school story tradition, such as the <i>Tom Brown’s School Days</i> series and twentieth-century girls’ boarding school stories such as those by Angela Brazil, has overshadowed the American genre. I also argue that the study of the girl’s book has focused on domestic (family) stories over the school story. By defining the American school story for girls, this project fills a critical gap and argues for how the school story is an important subgenre of the girl’s book that depicts the nineteenth-century girl in an educational environment with new personal and professional opportunities. </p> <p> </p> <p>The first half of the dissertation provides a genre and historical overview, while the second half consists of case studies of specific educational sites and types of experience. The first chapter provides a guiding definition of the school story and examines its subgenres. I split the school story into the following subgenres: the common story school, the seminary or boarding school story, and the college novel, and describe their common tropes and characters. The second chapter details the history of American women’s education and provides relevant examples of fictional school depictions. In chapter three, I analyze girls’ seminary (boarding school) schools including <i>The Boarding-School Girl</i> (1848) by Louisa C. Tuthill, <i>Hester Stanley at St. Mark's</i> (1882) by Harriet Prescott Spofford, and <i>Betty Baird</i> (1906) by Anna Hamlin Weikel. This chapter argues for the religious, personal, and professional goals that motivated the girl characters to attend school, and how the fiction depicted society’s expectations for these girls. Finally, chapter four examines three Vassar-focused college novels, specifically the first two books in <i>The </i><i>Three Vassar Girls </i>series (1883-1892) by Elizabeth W. Champney and Julia A. Schwartz’s <i>Elinor’s College Career </i>(1906), to argue that the college experience created networks to help further the lives of women, while also working to maintain homogeneity. </p>

This study investigates the responses of contemporary South African, Grade one children to threshold experiences in Grimm fairy tales and African Zulu folk tales. Thresholds involve an exciting or challenging experience, or a transformation in stories. Three stories from each genre were read over six sessions, to ten diverse black and white children, from one school. The children’s enjoyment was assessed, with focus on their backgrounds and previous knowledge, to help find beneficial reading for them. Results suggested that while gender of characters and story origins did not seem important, story length, humour, entertainment and educational ability, as well as personal involvement, were useful. The study supported the notion that stories are generally universal and could help bridge our cultural divide. Reader-Response theory was used and its principles helped to structure questions for the interviews, and to analyse data. Hopefully, the findings will help to select appropriate texts for all children beginning school in present-day South Africa.