Contemporary Children's Literature and Film: Engaging with Theory

by Kerry Mallan (Editor), Clare Bradford (Editor)

Overview

Bringing together leading and emerging scholars, this book argues for the significance of theory for reading texts written and produced for young people. Integrating perspectives from across feminism, ecocriticism, postcolonialism and poststructuralism, it demonstrates how these inform approaches to a range of contemporary literature and film.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230344051
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	07/13/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	715 KB

About the Author

KERRY MALLAN is Professor in Education at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her co-edited book Youth Cultures: Texts, Images and Identities is an IRSCL Honour Book (2003). She is a co-author of New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature (2008). Her most recent book is Gender Dilemmas in Children's Fiction (2009).

CLARE BRADFORD is Professor of Literature at Deakin University, Australia. Her 2001 book, Reading Race, won both the ChLA Book Award and the IRSCL Award. She is a co-author of New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature (2008). Her most recent book is Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children's Literature (2007).

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Bringing Back Theory; K.Mallan&C.Bradford
Schemas and Scripts: Cognitive Instruments and the Representation of Cultural Diversity in Children's Literature; J.Stephens
Journeying Subjects: Spatiality and Identity in Children's Texts; C.Bradford&R.Baccolini
Local and Global: Cultural Globalisation, Consumerism and Children's Fiction; E.Bullen&K.Mallan
Monstrous Women: Gothic Misogyny in Monster House; M.Takolander
Splitting the Difference: Pleasure, Desire and Intersubjectivity in Children's Literature and Film; C.Wilkie-Stubbs
Children as Ecocitizens: Ecocriticism and Environmental Texts; G.Massey&C.Bradford
From 'Wizard' to 'Wicked': Adaptation Theory and Young Adult Fiction; D.Buchbinder
All That Matters: Technoscience, Critical Theory and Children's Fiction; K.Mallan
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

An interesting and thought-provoking read. It traverses a diverse theoretical field and should be commended for providing an impressive collection of essays that showcases many of the new directions in contemporary children's literature research.' – Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures

'The book's major contribution is to showcase contemporary forms/iterations of theory such as posthumanism, cognitive poetics, and spatiality studies. This very fine collection of essays will be of use to a wide range of students as well as to established scholars.' – Kenneth Kidd, Associate Professor of English, University of Florida, USA

'A volume like this is long overdue: a single work that not only talks about literature and film alongside each other without making either seem the poor relation, but which also makes theory work in a practical, productive, and even (dare I say it), pleasurable manner. Students, and the rest of us, should benefit hugely.' – David Rudd, Professor of Children's Literature, University of Bolton, UK