基本説明
A leading scholar presents close readings of six classic stories and offers a clear definition of children's writing as a distinct literary form.
Full Description
What exactly is a children's book? How is children's literature defined as a genre? A leading scholar presents close readings of six classic stories to answer these questions and offer a clear definition of children's writing as a distinct literary form. Perry Nodelman begins by considering the plots, themes, and structures of six works: "The Purple Jar," Alice in Wonderland, Dr. Doolittle, Henry Huggins, The Snowy Day, and Plain City-all written for young people of varying ages in different times and places-to identify shared characteristics. He points out markers in each work that allow the adult reader to understand it as a children's story, shedding light on ingrained adult assumptions and revealing the ways in which adult knowledge and experience remain hidden in apparently simple and innocent texts. Nodelman then engages a wide range of views of children's literature from authors, literary critics, cultural theorists, and specialists in education and information sciences. Through this informed dialogue, Nodelman develops a comprehensive theory of children's literature, exploring its commonalities and shared themes.
The Hidden Adult is a focused and sophisticated analysis of children's literature and a major contribution to the theory and criticism of the genre.
Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Six Texts
Different Texts, Same Genre
Language: The Text and Its Shadows
Focalization: Who Sees and What They Know
Desire Confronts Knowledge
Home and Away: Essential Doubleness
Variation
Summary
2. Exploring Assumptions
Reading as an Adult
Making Choices: Exploring Representativeness
Assumptions about Genre
Genre and Field
Genre and Genres
3. Children's Literature as a Genre
Defining Children's Literature
No Genre
Different but Not Distinct
Literature and Children
For the Good of Children
Literature for Boys and Literature for Girls
Middle-Class Subjectivity
Doubleness
Specific Markers
About Children
The Eyes of Children
Simplicity and Sublimation
The Hidden Adult
Narrator and Narratee
Showing, Not Telling
Happy Endings
Achieving Utopia
Binaries
Repetition
Variation
A Comprehensive Statement?
The Genre in the Field
Sameness and Difference
The Sameness of Children's Literature
Different Children's Literatures: The Effects of Personality and History
Different Children's Literatures: The Effects of Nationality
4. The Genre in the Field
Distinctive Texts in the Genre
Conclusion: Children's Literature as Nonadult?
Notes
Bibliography
Index