Global Perspectives on Death in Children's Literature

ISBN-13: 9781138815247 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 282 str.

Opis

This volume visits death in children's literature from around the world, making a substantial contribution to the dialogue between the expanding fields of Childhood Studies, Children's Literature, and Death Studies. Considering both textual and pictorial representations of death, contributors focus on the topic of death in children's literature as a physical reality, a philosophical concept, a psychologically challenging adjustment, and/or a social construct. Essays covering literature from the US, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Canada, the UK, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, India, and Iran display a diverse range of theoretical and cultural perspectives. Carefully organized sections interrogate how classic texts have been adapted for the twenty-first century, how death has been politicized, ritualized, or metaphorized, and visual strategies for representing death, and how death has been represented within the context of play. Asking how different cultures present the concept of death to children, this volume is the first to bring together a global range of perspective on death in children's literature and will be a valuable contribution to an array of disciplines.

Recenzje

"I strongly recommend Global Perspectives on Death in Children’s Literature, particularly for its discussions of a range of political meanings of death in children’s and young adult literature. The collection shows that the subjects of death and childhood are not as incompatible as they are often perceived to be. On the contrary, it reveals how far the transition from childhood to adolescence is influenced by reflections on life and death and by real experiences of death and dying. The cultural variety and politically enlightening discussions of the subject make Global Perspectives on Death in Children’s Literature important to scholars and students working in the field of children’s literature studies." - Ada Bieber, University of Sydney, Australia

Spis treści

Introduction: Flying Kites and Other Life-Death Matters Lesley D. Clement  Part 1: Adapting Death for Changing Contexts  1.Thus did hearth-companions grieve their lord’s fall: Death, Mourning, and the Children’s Beowulf Daniel Pinti  2. Loyalty, Honor, and Death in Rick Riordan’s Olympus Series Ginger Stelle  3. A Deathly Underworld: Bulgarian Literature for Children of the Early Twentieth Century Margarita Georgieva  Part 2: Ritualizing Death and Life after Death  4. Holy Death: Constructions of Martyrdom in Persian Children’s Literature on the Eight-Year War between Iraq and Iran Hossein Sheykh Rezaee  5. Deadly Celebrations: Realistic Fiction Picture Books and el Día de los Muertos Denise Dávila  6. The Soul in Contemporary YA Literature Sonja Loidl  Part 3: Politicizing Death  7. From Ultimate Punishment to Heroic Sacrifice, and After: Representations of Death in Bengali Children’s Literature from the Colonial Era Urvi Mukhopadhyay  8. A New Normal: Death and Dying in a Soviet Children’s Magazine, 1941-1945 Julie deGraffenried  9. Contemporary Coming of Age(ncy) Narratives of Political Violence and Death in El Salvador and Guatemala: "So that future generations may be aware" Susana S. Martínez  Part 4: Picturing Death  10. The Last Resort: Death and Liminality in Children’s Picture Books on Emily Dickinson Lesley D. Clement  11. Old Age and Death in Northern European Picture Books: Achieving Empathy through Textual and Filmic Images of Sweden’s Kan du Vissla Johanna Penni Cotton  12. Visual Narratives of Death and Memory: The Holocaust in Two Contemporary European Picture Books Magdalena Sikorska and Katarzyna Smyczyńska  Part 5: Metaphorizing Death  13. Death, Politics, and Production of Childhoods through Children’s Literature Marek Tesar  14. Michael Ende’s Philosophy of Death, Life, and Time Maria Luisa Alonso  15. From the Ecological to the Digital: Salman Rushdie’s Many Lives of Storytelling Frans Weiser  Part 6: Playing with Death  16. Mocking Death in Brazilian Children’s Folk Literature Rosana Kohl Bines  17. Battling School: Death as Education in Ender’s Game Susan Shau Ming Tan  18. Machinic Liaisons: Death’s Dance with Children in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief Markus P.J. Bohlmann