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Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers. This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening. The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy.

This study is an examination of the hero image in the work of G.A. Henty (1832-1902) and George MacDonald (1824-1905) and a reassessment of the hitherto oppositional critiques of their writing. The argument driving the reassessment is that their writing is not oppositional but is complementary and that the ideology embedded in their work is communicated through the character of the hero through genre and through their interpretation of their historical period. The central hypothesis is that the reflexive characteristics of the hero image demonstrate a complete identity commensurate with the hero figure of the Victorian ideal. This hypothesis is demonstrated through the analysis of chosen texts from the work of Henty and MacDonald categorised by critics as written for children and by the application of ethical, genre and new historic theory. The relationship between the expansion of the British Empire and youthful heroism is established through investigation of the Victorian political, social and religious milieu, the construct of the child and the construct of the hero. The connection between the exotic geographical space of empire and the unknown psychological space is conducted through examination of the representation of the ‘other' in the work of Henty and MacDonald. The study demonstrates that Henty’s work is more complex than the stereotypically linear, masculine, imperialistic critique of his stories as historical realism allows and that MacDonald’s work displays more evidence of historical embedding and ideological interpellation than the critical focus on his work as fantasy and fairy tale considers. The contribution of this study to existing research on Henty and MacDonald is firstly by an examination of the ideology embedded in the construct of the hero figure as this construct impacted Victorian culture and secondly by reassessing the existing criticism of their work. Greater understanding of the effect of this heroic ideal on nineteenth century society leads to a greater understanding of the implications for subsequent cultures including that of the twenty first century. This aspect is examined in relation to the current reprinting programmes for Henty and MacDonald and is proposed as a subject for continued research.

In surveying the cultural context of modern-day Turkey it must be acknowledged that, historically, there have been critical problems between different ethnic (Turkish and Kurdish) and religious groups in Turkey arising from prejudice, intolerance and leading to hatred and conflict. One way of easing the tension between these groups could be by challenging prejudice through developing empathy, understanding and respect. Among a number of ways this could be done, researchers in the field of literacy and children’s literature have stressed the positive effects of reading books that emerge from the transaction between the reader and the text which have the potential to raise awareness about prejudice (Arizpe et al., 2014b; Farrar, 2017). However, research suggests that young people’s amount of reading books is low in Turkey (OECD, 2009; OECD, 2012); in addition, the Board of National Education in Turkey (BNET) and education policies in Turkey have not paid attention to young people’s reading interests or their reading for pleasure (BNET, 2011a and b). Based on the theoretical tenet that reading fiction can affect readers’ thoughts and emotions, the wide aim of this study was to explore the potential of reading fiction for developing empathy and understanding. Given that young people’s reading interests have not been considered in Turkey in detail, this thesis had to begin by investigating what kind of books were preferred and what effects they had on adolescent readers in that country. In order to accomplish this, a case study method with a mixed method design was employed and it was decided that an approach using the Transactional theory of reading as well as Cognitive Criticism would help to achieve this goal. In total, 381 students (aged between 16 and 18) responded to an online questionnaire and 10 of these students participated in interviews and reading activities. The data was analysed using the IBM SPSS 22 statistical analysis program and NVivo qualitative analysis software. The findings of the study identified the significant impact that gatekeepers and facilitators (government, publishers and social community) have on Turkish adolescents’ reading attitudes and choices. It was also found that, although young people liked reading contemporary fiction and online texts, so far this has not been taken into account in the Curriculum and in the promotion of reading in Turkey. The study has identified a major gap between what schools offer and what students read (or between in-school and out-of-school practices), a key aspect in reducing students’ interest in reading books and therefore a missed opportunity for raising awareness about prejudice. Finally, this study provides strong evidence about the potential of reading and discussing books with a small group of adolescent readers, an activity that enabled them to express their thoughts about serious issues and thus supported them in developing self-understanding and understanding of others.

In today’s increasingly digitised world, we communicate both locally and globally across different languages, modes and media. Since the New London Group’s (1996) seminal ‘Pedagogy of Multiliteracies’ some twenty years ago, there have been further significant developments in the way we communicate, with the 21st century considered ‘the great age of translation’ (Bassnett 2014:1). Yet despite the increasing number of multilingual, multimodal texts we encounter, classrooms continue to teach traditional, monolingual print-based models of literacy. This research is therefore primarily in response to this rapidly evolving context, with a curiosity as to how international picturebooks might develop the skills learners need to succeed both now and in the future. The research process has been a journey comprising two separate phases of empirical study as I have sought to find out the best way to approach this topic. My initial focus, Phase One, was exploring the visual literacy skills of EAL learners and I completed a project in a primary school in Glasgow. As a result of the emerging findings, the research then changed in two ways – to a whole class approach comprising both bilingual and monolingual learners, and to a focus on translation. Phase Two comprised two whole class projects in the Scottish Borders, with my overarching question: How can translating both the verbal and visual in international picturebooks develop the multiliteracies learners require in the 21st century? In my discussions of multiliteracies, I have focused on four different areas: visual, critical, digital and intercultural literacies. Learners’ visual literacy skills were developed through their recognition of the cultural codes in visuals. Their critical literacies were developed through the recognition of power in texts, through deconstructing and reconstructing texts and seeking multiple perspectives. Digital literacies were improved through the critical retrieval of information online and through using tools such as Google Translate and, like Gilster (1997), I have suggested a key component of digital literacies is having an open mind as to the possibilities of emerging technologies. I also argue that intercultural literacy should be included under the umbrella of multiliteracies, in order to provide learners with the tools to navigate the increasingly multilingual, multicultural spaces they are likely to encounter, and offer tentative findings which show how translating international picturebooks has helped to develop these skills and attitudes. Prior to concluding the thesis, I briefly consider alternative lenses for the research, in particular Critical Race Theory, identity and translingualism. I then sum up the project in Chapter 11 and make some key recommendations, including the need for multiliteracies to be explicitly acknowledged in the curriculum and for international picturebooks, including those in the first languages (L1s) of the bilingual learners, to be introduced into classrooms to challenge the dominance of English and ‘what counts’ as reading. Alongside a discussion as to the limitations of the research and possible future directions, the thesis concludes with a call for both academics and educators to consider how the gap between research and practice might be reduced, to enable research such as this to have an impact on today’s literacy learners.

Critical literacy is widely acknowledged as a crucial component of 21st century literacies, with a growing number of researchers providing inspirational examples of what can happen when teachers create critically literate ‘niches’ or spaces in their classrooms (O’Brien 1994; Leland et al 2005; Souto-Manning 2009). Despite this increase in scholarly interest, schooling’s traditional focus on code-breaking and comprehension-type literacy practices (Leland et al 2005) has meant that critical literacy still remains on the margins of many classrooms and curricula, as a buzzword, add-on or extension task that is often reserved for the eldest or most able (Comber 2001). Consequently, researchers have found that a critical stance still does not come “naturally” to readers within schooled contexts (Ryan & Anstey 2003; Scull et al 2013), a situation that cannot be remedied until critical literacy is widely used and valued by readers both inside and outside of schools (Carrington & Luke 1997). Responding to this context and motivated by an absence of research into the critically literate practices of families, a key aim of this study has been to find ways of making space for more critical “ways with words” (Heath 1983) to emerge in places other than classrooms. Underpinned by a theoretical understanding that a powerful and productive relationship exists between the effects of metafiction and the broadly-agreed aims of critical literacy, this thesis is an account of what happened when a group of eight parents and their eight primary school-aged children encountered the complex, surprising and disruptive demands of metafiction in picturebooks. Discussions about the picturebooks were located across a range of school-based and out-of-school settings and the resulting qualitative, analytical inquiry focused specifically on the literacy resources that dominated these readers’ responses when they engaged with metafiction. Key findings included the fact that comments with a ‘critical edge’ always emerged in direct response to the provocations of metafiction. More specifically, this study has identified the ability of metafiction to provoke resistance as a reader response; an experience that made it possible for some readers to interrupt and question their ‘natural’ literacy practices. In addition, the effects of metafiction made it possible for readers to develop metaliterate understandings, a term used here to describe a heightened awareness of language in use and of reading as an active, social process of meaning-making. In both cases, the effects of metafiction helped to foreground the often invisible dispositions that give shape to understandings about words - and pictures - and, simultaneously, about the world (Freire 1985).

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