Understanding Children's Literature

✍ Scribed by Peter Hunt

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 238
• Edition: 2
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Edited by Peter Hunt, a leading figure in the field, this book introduces the study of children’s literature, addressing theoretical questions as well as the most relevant critical approaches to the discipline.

The fourteen chapters draw on insights from academic disciplines ranging from cultural and literary studies to education and psychology, and include an essay on what writers for children think about their craft. The result is a fascinating array of perspectives on key topics in children’s literature as well as an introduction to such diverse concerns as literacy, ideology, stylistics, feminism, history, culture and bibliotherapy.

An extensive general bibliography is complemented by lists of further reading for each chapter and a glossary defines critical and technical terms, making the book accessible for those coming to the field or to a particular approach for the first time.

In this second edition there are four entirely new chapters; contributors have revisited and revised or rewritten seven of the chapters to reflect new thinking, while the remaining three are classic essays, widely acknowledged to be definitive.

Understanding Children’s Literature will not only be an invaluable guide for students of literature or education, but it will also inform and enrich the practice of teachers and librarians.

✦ Table of Contents

Book Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Note on the Second Edition......Page 8
Contributors......Page 9
1. Introduction: The Expanding World of Children’s Literature Studies......Page 12
2. Theorising and Theories: How does Children’s Literature Exist?......Page 26
3. Critical Tradition and Ideological Positioning......Page 41
4. Space, History and Culture: The Setting of Children’s Literature......Page 61
5. Analysing Texts: Linguistics and Stylistics......Page 84
6. Readers, Texts, Contexts: Reader-Response Criticism......Page 97
7. Reading the Unconscious: Psychoanalytical Criticism......Page 114
8. Feminism Revisited......Page 125
9. Decoding the Images: How Picture Books Work......Page 139
10. Bibliography: The Resources of Children’s Literature......Page 151
11. Understanding Reading and Literacy......Page 170
12. Intertextuality and the Child Reader......Page 179
13. Healing Texts: Bibliotherapy and Psychology......Page 191
14. What the Authors Tell Us......Page 201
Glossary......Page 217
General Bibliography......Page 219
Index......Page 223