Narratives of Love and Loss

Studies in Modern Children's Fiction

Margaret Rustin, Michael Rustin

• Publisher: Verso
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780860918998
• eBook ISBN: 9781789607451
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

Why do some stories written for children have so powerful an emotional resonance for both child and adult readers? This is the question addressed by Margaret and Michael Rustin, in a book which offers a detailed critical reading of some of the best-known modern British and American stories for children by writers such as E.B. White, Philippa Pearce and C.S. Lewis. The authors make use of psychoanalytical and sociological ideas in their approach, interpreting the stories both as metaphors of states of feeling often experienced by children, and as images of the wider society in which they are written. A particular theme of their discussion is personal and imaginative growth in childhood, and the ways this can be affected, both for better and worse, by separation and loss.

In their detailed consideration of the narratives of the stories, the authors avoid theoretical jargon, and concentrate on works which have interest and meaning for adult readers as well as children. Narratives of Love and Loss is an important and accessible book which will be of special interest to parents and teachers concerned with children's reading and imaginative play, and to those working in the fields of psychoanalysis, English literature and popular culture.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Deep Structures in Modern Children’s Fiction
• 1. Loneliness, Dreaming and Discovery: Tom’s Midnight Garden
• 2. Narnia : An Imaginary Land as Container of Moral and Emotional Adventure
• 3. Magic Wishes and the Self Explorations of Children: Five Children and It
• 4. The Life of Dolls: Rumer Godden’s Understanding of Children’s Imaginative Play
• 5. The Maternal Capacities of a Small Boy: The Indian in the Cupboard
• 6. Animals in Reality and Fantasy: Two Stories by Philippa Pearce
• 7. The Poetic Power of Ordinary Speech: Ε. B. White’s Children’s Stories
• 8. Who Believes in ‘Borrowers’?
• 9. Making Out in America: The Mouse and His Child
• 10. Inner Implications of Extended Traumas: Carrie’s War
• 11. Finding Oneself Among Strangers: Three Stories by Paula Fox
• Conclusion: Explorations of Loss
• Notes
• List of Principal Works Discussed
• Index