Final Exam Review Sheet Questions Flashcards
dont fail
What does the Golden Age of Children’s Literature refer to? (Two key points)
- Childhood itself was understood as a “Golden Age”- childhood as a life stage with positive attributes that should be celebrated
- An era of generic execellence for children’s lit
When was the Golden Age of Children’s Literature? (years and key texts)
- It approximately spans from 1865-1926
- Beginning with Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland) 1865- A.A Milne (Winnie the Pooh) 1926
There are two kinds of Golden Age authors-
“destroyers and arcadians”
What is a Destroyer?
- Attacked social conventions
- Authors such as Carroll and Lear
What is a Arcadian?
- Imagined alternative realms
- Authors such as J.M Barrie and Potter
Significance of the Golden Age and Empire
- M.Daphne Nutzer: Argues that the rise of imperialism is associated with the same time as the golden age of children’s lit (1860-1930)
- Therefore the LONGING FOR EMPIRE or at least national importance is reflected in children’s books of the golden age and of our age
- Nutzer argues that Golden Age authors drew on the PRIVILEGE of nearly borderless British imperial economy
Who was James Kincaid?
Wrote Child Loving: The Erotic Child and Victorian Culture
Main Points of Child Loving: The Erotic Child and Victorian Culture:
- Kincaid: The Golden Age images are essentially erotic because they fetishize the border between childhood and adulthood
- Argues that Golden Age authors were so popular because they tapped into the libidinal energies of thier child and adult readers
The Fetishization of Childhood in Childrens Lit
Festishize: to give excessive or irrational devotion to something or someone
Innocent Child: children are represented as innocent-adult producers and readers of the text often fetishize the image of the innocent child
Innocence is socially constructed
Jacqueline Rose on Fetishizing Childhood
- The Case of Peter Pan
- “Desire functions as a form of investment by the adult in the child”
Kincaid on Fetishizing Childhood:
“The ideology of childhood as an innocent, imaginative “Golden Age” displaces but does not dissolve the Victorian impulse to repeatedly erect and then violate the boundaries between children and adults”
Who was J.M Barrie?
1860-1937
Author of Peter Pan and the Little White Bird
History of J.M Barrie Before Peter Pan
- 13 year old brother died- mother’s favourite child (J.M felt that he could never replace him)
- Became a journalist and moved to London where he met the Llewelyn Davies family in 1897
- Adopted the family’s five sons when their parents died
- Llewelyn Davies five sons became inspiration for Peter Pan
- Peter Pan began as series of stories he told the boys in Kensington gardens from 1897 onwards
List the multiple versions of Peter Pan in order:
1 The Little White Bird- Adult Novel- 1902
2 Peter Pan, Or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up- Three Act PLay- 1904
3 Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens- Illustrated Children’s Book- 1906
4 Peter and Wendy- Full length novel- 1911
5 Peter Pan- Silent Film Screenplay- 1921
6 Jas Hook a Etin Or the Solitary-1925
7 Blot on Peter Pan 1926
8 Peter Pan, Or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up- Five Act Play-1928
What do the multiple versions of Peter Pan show?
That it is a highly malleable text that resonates with the culture
Initially proposed titles for Peter Pan:
“The Boy Who Hated Mother’s”, “The Great White Father” and “Fairy”
Peter Pan and Gender
Tradition of pantomime women playing Peter Pan
When Peter Pan is played by women there is more innocence
Shades of sexuality
Example: Cathy Rigby’s eternal playing of Peter Pan parallels the “Never Grow Up”
Significance of the Little White Bird
- First mention of Pan (1902) by Barrie
- Influential because in some versions Chapter 19 is censored and removed
Jacqueline Rose on the Little White Bird
Chapter 19 is censored:
- Behind Peter Pan lies the desire of a man or little boy- this violates not only the innocence of childhood, not just that of children’s fiction but what we like to think of as normal sexuality itself
- Questions whether the White Bird scene is erotically charged or the innocent perspective of an adult in awe at a young child’s beauty
How are picture books a paradox?
We see picture books as childlike, simple-thus not worthy of serious critical attention
- But they require complex, sophisticated assumptions about what pictures do and how readers should respond to them
- can be political and controversial
What does polyphonic mean?
-Picture books are “polyphonic”-they often employ complex codes, styles and textual devices to communicate meaning
Semiotics: What is a sign?
Sign: composed of a signified and a signifier and the relationship between them is arbitrary
Therefore uses assumptions to interpret images
Use semiotics to analyze picture books
Margaret Meek: Picture Books as “Imaginative Looking”
- She argues that picture books make reading for all a distinctive kind of imaginative looking”
- There are pleasures in addition to reading: holding the book, turning the pages, touching, pointing to the pictures, etc.
Perry Nodelman & Mavis Reimer:The Rhythm of Picture Books
- They argue that picture books have a back and forth rhythm
- Readers want to turn the page and find out what happens next- but also when to stop and pay close attention to the images
- A characteristic of picture books is a pattern of delays, counterpointing and contributing to the suspense of the plot
