Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Osnabrück, 1993.

Children’s literature flourished in Edo-period Japan, as this dissertation shows through a survey of eighteenth-century woodblock-printed picturebooks for children that feature children in prominent roles. Addressing a persisting neglect of non-Western texts in the study of children’s literature and childhood per se, the dissertation challenges prevailing historical understandings of the origins of children’s literature and conceptions of childhood as a distinct phase of life. The explosive growth of print culture in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Japan not only raised expectations for adult literacy but also encouraged the spread of basic education for children and the publication of books for the young. The limited prior scholarship on Edo-period Japanese children’s books tends to dismiss them as a few isolated exceptions or as limited to moralistic primers and records of oral tradition. This dissertation reveals a long-lasting, influential, and varied body of children’s literature that combines didactic value with entertainment. Eighteenth-century picturebooks drew on literary and religious traditions as well as popular culture, while tailoring their messages to the interests and limitations of child readers. Organized in two parts, the dissertation includes two analytical chapters followed by five annotated translations of picturebooks (kōzeibyōshi and early kusazōshi). Among the illustrators that can be identified are ukiyoe artists like Torii Kiyomitsu (1735-1785). The first chapter analyzes the picturebook as a form of children’s literature that can be considered in terms analogous to those used of children’s literature in the West, and it provides evidence that these picturebooks were recognized by Japanese of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as uniquely suited to child readers. The second chapter addresses the ways in which woodblock-printed children’s literature was commercialized and canonized from the mid-eighteenth century through the latter years of the Edo period, and it shows that picturebooks became source material for new forms of children’s culture during that time. The translated picturebooks, from both the city of Edo and the Kamigata region, include a sample of eighteenth-century views of the child: developing fetus, energetic grandchild, talented student, unruly schoolboy, obedient helper at home, young bride-to-be, and deceased child under the care of the Bodhisattva Jizō. / East Asian Languages and Civilizations

The purpose of this research study was to explore the possibilities of using children's and adolescent literature with lower-level students of Spanish. The study investigated second-semester students' perceptions of their experiences reading children's and adolescent literature in Spanish and the relevance of reading this literature on their acquisition of Spanish and their understanding and appreciation of Latino culture. Seventy-eight students enrolled in three second-semester Spanish courses in a large Southwestern university read two children's books in Spanish as part of the course curriculum; sixty-eight of these students agreed to participate in the research study. Quantitative data concerning students' periodic self-ratings of their communicative abilities in Spanish were collected via questionnaires. Qualitative data concerning students' perceptions of their experiences reading the children's books were collected through journal entries, surveys, focus-group interviews, and compositions. Students indicated that their communicative skills in Spanish increased throughout the course of the semester. Students in Classes #1 and #2 believed that their reading abilities in Spanish increased from novice-mid to novice-high. Students in Class #3, however, concluded that their reading abilities in Spanish increased from novice-mid to the intermediate-low. Students affirmed that reading the children's books helped them see Spanish vocabulary and grammar in context and reinforced the vocabulary items and grammatical features of Spanish they previously learned in the course textbook. Many students indicated that reading and discussing the children's books contributed to the development of their reading ability as well as other communicative abilities in Spanish. Students' opinions varied concerning the extent to which curricular engagements supported or impeded their comprehension of the children's books. Additionally, students asserted that the children's books contributed to their understanding and appreciation of Latino culture and that the books supported the development of their intercultural competence. A number of research and pedagogical implications of the study are included along with avenues for further research.

Engagement with global children's literature is an effective way to introduce multiple perspectives into the classroom dialogue. Yet teachers are often unfamiliar with ways of helping students understand diverse cultural practices and beliefs. The result is that global children's literature continues to be an underused resource. This action research study looked at 25 highly diverse educator study groups as they used global literature with pre-K - 12 students. The goal was to support the development of intercultural understanding. The study groups received $1,000 grants from Worlds of Words (wowlit.org) to fund their yearlong inquiry. The groups met face-to-face throughout the year to reflect on the interactions taking place in their classrooms. All groups met online on a members-only site. Data collected included proposals, reports, teacher vignettes, and interviews. The data was used to document range of study group structures and interactions with global literature. The study groups and online forum were supported by a grant from the Longview Foundation. Through constant comparative analysis, new transformative understandings were identified. Key elements in the development of intercultural understanding included open inquiry, recognition of complexity and multiple perspectives, thinking about culture at a conceptual level, and engaging in open dialogue. Teachers reported an increased understanding of their competence as professionals, their student's competence as problem-posers and thinkers, and the parents' competence as important contributors to intercultural understanding. The study concludes with implications for practitioners wanting to engage in classroom inquiries using global literature to support developing intercultural understanding. A second set of implications suggests ways in which the study group process can be made more effective. New questions are proposed for future research related to the use of global literature in various contexts, including classrooms, online professional development, and libraries.

Steampunk first appeared in the 1980s as a subgenre of science fiction, featuring anachronistic technologies with a veneer of Victorian sensibilities. In recent years steampunk has re-emerged in young adult science fiction as a fresh and dynamic subgenre, which includes titles such as The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross, The Hunchback Assignment by Arthur Slade, and Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. Like their predecessors, these modern steampunk novels for teens use retrofuturistic historiography and innovative mechanical aesthetics to dramatize the volatile relationship between man and technology, only in these novels the narrative is intentionally set in the context of their teen protagonist's social and emotional development. However, didactic conventions such as technophobia and the formulaic linearity of the bildungsroman narrative complicate and frustrate steampunk's representation of adolescent formation. Using case studies of Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld and The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia, retrofuturism and technological hybridity are presented as defining features of steampunk that subvert young adult science fiction's technophobic and liberal humanist traditions. The dirigible and the automaton are examined as the quintessential tropes of steampunk fiction that reproduce the necessary amphibious quality, invoking new expressions and understanding of adolescent growth and identity formation that have a distinctly utopian, nostalgic, and ecocentric undertone.

The emotive connotations of diminutives in English are a source of controversy among scholars, while the Slavic languages of Polish and Russian are considered ‘diminutive-rich’ with diminutives that convey diverse nuances. Thus, the translation of diminutives between English and Slavic languages has either been portrayed as difficult or has been ignored altogether. However, an analysis of Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and several of its translations into Polish and Russian shows that English has many diminutives, some of which are ‘untranslatable’, while many diminutives can be easily translated. Yet, the strong emphasis on diminutives in Polish and Russian produces diminutives in the translations that do not appear in the original text and are not typical of English. What becomes evident is that the obstacles in translating various diminutive constructions provoke the question: What are the semantic-pragmatic differences between English and Polish/Russian diminutives and how do these differences affect translation? / Graduate / 0679 / 0593 / 0314 / dlockyer@alumni.ubc.ca

"May 2003". / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Department of English, 2004. / Bibliography: p. 301-332. / Introduction -- The significance of Miyazawa Kenji's ideals in (post) modern Japanese children's literature -- Re-presenting Miyazawa Kenji's tales: cultural coding and discourse analysis -- Tale of "Wildcat and the acorns" (Donguri to Yamaneko): self and subjectivity in the characters and haecceitas in the organic world -- Beyond dualism in "Snow crossing" (Yukiwatan) -- Kenji's "Dekunobõ ideal in "Gõshu the cellist" (Serohiki no Gõshu) and "Kenjũ's park" (Kenjũ kõenrin) -- Beyond the realm of Asura in "The twin stars" (Futago no hoshi) and "Wild pear (Yamanashi) -- The material and immaterial in "The restaurant of many orders (Chũmon no õi ryõriten) -- Conclusion. / This thesis investigates ideologies in contemporary picture books of Miyazawa Kenji's tales from the perspective of the acculturation of children in (post)modern Japan. Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933) was writing in the early 20'" century, yet he is currently the most prolifically published literary figure in picture book form and these pictorialisations are widely promulgated to children and throughout cultural and educational institutions in Japan. Given Kenji's prominence as a devoutly Buddhist author with a unique position within Japanese literature, the thesis operates on the premise that the picture books are working, inter aha, to decode or encode the inherent Buddhist ideologies of self, identity and subjectivity and that the picture book re-versions are attempting to be 'authentic' to these. (Unlike many other works adapted for picture books, Kenji's original words are left intact.) Such selflother interactions are important to the construction of identity because childhood itself is an ideological construction premised on assumptions about what it means to be a child and what it means to 'be'; in other words, "such fictions are premised on culturally specific ideologies of identity" (McCallum, 1999: 263). Picture books, with their two forms of narrative discourse, pictures and words, are more ideologically powerful than words alone because the pictures also carry attitudes and therefore doubly inscribe both the explicit and implicit ideologies inherent in the words. -- By utilising Miyazawa Kenji's non-humanist Buddhist ideologies as a basis, this investigation compares how different artists are (re-)inscribing these ideals in the most frequently pidorialised versions of his children's tales. It is primarily an investigation into how the artistic responses re-situate or respond to ideologies of self and subjectivity inherent in a select corpus of focused pre-existing texts. Ultimately, the thesis shows how different pictures can shape story and how the implied reader is interpellated into certain subject positions and viewpoints from which to read the texts. This involves an intertextual approach which explores how art and culture interact to imply significance. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / iv, 332, [31] p. ill. (some col.)

Zugl.: Regensburg, Univ., Diss., 2005

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Mississippi State University. Department of Curriculum and Instruction. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Licentiat). / Includes bibliographical references (p. [119]-128).