Little Red Readings

Historical Materialist Perspectives on Children's Literature

Angela E. Hubler

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2014
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9781626741560
• Subtopic: Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

A significant body of scholarship examines the production of children's literature by women and minorities, as well as the representation of gender, race, and sexuality. But few scholars have previously analyzed class in children's literature. This definitive collection remedies that by defining and exemplifying historical materialist approaches to children's literature. The introduction of Little Red Readings lucidly discusses characteristics of historical materialism, the methodological approach to the study of literature and culture first outlined by Karl Marx, defining key concepts and analyzing factors that have marginalized this tradition, particularly in the United States. The thirteen essays here analyze a wide range of texts—from children's bibles to Mary Poppins to The Hunger Games —using concepts in historical materialism from class struggle to the commodity. Essayists apply the work of Marxist theorists such as Ernst Bloch and Fredric Jameson to children's literature and film. Others examine the work of leftist writers in India, Germany, England, and the United States. The authors argue that historical materialist methodology is critical to the study of children's literature, as children often suffer most from inequality. Some of the critics in this collection reveal the ways that literature for children often functions to naturalize capitalist economic and social relations. Other critics champion literature that reveals to readers the construction of social reality and point to texts that enable an understanding of the role ordinary people might play in creating a more just future. The collection adds substantially to our understanding of the political and class character of children's literature worldwide and contributes to the development of a radical history of children's literature.

INDEX

The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Adivasis

Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The

Æ

aesthetic symbol

aestheticization of poverty

African Americans

Age of Innocence, The

aggression

Akeelah and the Bee

Alcott, Louisa May

Alice in Wonderland

alienation

A-List, The

Alloy Entertainment

American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)

American Girl

American Indian. See Native American Indian

American Library Association (ALA)

Amulet: The Stonekeeper

Ananthakrishna, Saumya

Andersen, Hans Christian

Anderson, Laurie Halse

Anderson, Tom

Andrea

animals

Annals of the Western Shore, The

Anne of Green Gables

antifascist literature. See literature

anti-utopia. See also dystopia

Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

aristocracy

Asian American studies

Asian Americans

authenticity

Babar

Babu, Mohammed Khadeer

Backfischliteratur (literature for adolescent girls). See literature

“Bad Tuesday”

Bagley, William

Bakhtin, Mikhail

Barbauld, Anna Laetitia

Barrie, J. M.

base and superstructure

Baum, L. Frank

Bhagavad Gita

Bhopal Gas Tragedy

Bible

Biblical violence. See violence

blackface

Bloch, Ernst

Blue Willow

Blume, Judy

Blyton, Enid

Bogle, Donald

Book of Nonsense, A

book publishers

Bourdieu, Pierre

bourgeoisie

Bows against the Barons

Bratton, J. S.

“Braveheart Badeyya”

Breaking the Magic Spell

Broken Blossoms

Bud, Not Buddy

Buddhism

Bunting, Eve

Burke, Thomas

Burnett, Frances Hodgson

Cai, Mingshui

Caldecott Medal

Capital

capitalism; competitive; global; industrial; late; multinational; postindustrial

carnivalesque

Catching Fire

Catching Them Young 1: Sex, Race and Class in Children’s Fiction

censorship

charity

Chen, Tina

Cherland, Mered...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Class/ic Aggression in Children’s Literature
• Shopping Like it’s 1899
• Precious Medals
• “We are all One”
• Solidarity of Times Past
• “The Disorders of Its Own Identity”
• The Young Socialist
• Girls’ Literature by German Writers in Exile (1933–1945)
• Different Tales and Different Lives
• A Multicultural History of Children’s Films
• Bloodthirsty Little Brats; or, The Child’s Desire for Biblical Violence
• Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Lois Lowry’s and Suzanne Collins’s Dystopian Fiction
• Ursula Le Guin’s Powers as Radical Fantasy
• Notes On Contributors
• Index