Jeunesse - Young People, Texts, Cultures (E-Journal)
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Innocence Abducted: Youth, War, and the Wolf in Literary Adaptations of the Pied Piper Legend from Robert Browning to Michel Tournier
Get PDFThe legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin has inspired numerous literary works around the globe, including Robert Browning’s famous poem (1888) and Wilhelm Raabe’s The Children of Hamelin (1868). While generally perceived as literature for the young this legend is steeped in a complex relationship between myth and history. By drawing on critical theory, primarily Giorgio Agamben’s thoughts on the expulsion of the "wolf man" in Homo Sacer and Friedrich Nietzsche’s Dionysus, and taking a closer interpretative look at Browning’s and Raabe’s literary adaptations in the second half of the nineteenth century this article contextualizes the complex relationship between the legend as myth and its political dimensions of race and insanity, the persecution of outsiders and itinerants.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2012.001
The Chronotope of the Threshold in Contemporary Canadian Literature for Young Adults
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Maksimowska, Aga. Giant. St. John’s: Pedlar, 2012.
Snyder, Carrie. The Juliet Stories. Toronto: Anansi, 2012.
Stevenson, Robin. Inferno. Victoria: Orca, 2009.
Walton, Jo. Among Others. New York: Tor, 2011.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2012.002
Le champ de la recherche en littérature pour la jeunesse: un carrefour interdisciplinaire de la « littérature monde »
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Attikpoé, Kodjo. L’inscription du social dans le roman contemporain pour la jeunesse. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2008.
Prince, Nathalie. La Littérature de jeunesse en question(s). Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2009.
Benert, Britta et Philippe Clermont. Contre l’innocence. Esthétique de l’engagement en littérature de jeunesse. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2011.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2012.001
Queering the Reader in Peter and Wendy
No full textRecently, queer theory has shown much interest in the figure of the child, with some critics seeking a queer understanding of childhood and others refuting the possibility of this enterprise. Few of these critics, though, have considered the queer possibilities of children’s literature, preferring instead to analyze child characters in the works of authors who do not write for children. Assuming both that "child" is indeed a queerable category and that books for children are worth analyzing through a queer lens, this essay offers a reading of J. M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy, arguing that narrative form is the principal queering force in this novel, and that the child queered most significantly is its reader.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2012.001
Kevin Major's Hold Fast and the Critical Reception of a Milestone Canadian Novel for Young Adults
No full textThis paper examines the critical reception of Kevin Major’s Hold Fast, published in 1978, as a hinge event in the field of production of Canadian children’s literature. It is argued that this novel represents a Canadian version of the social realism narrative that was well established in the United States by the mid-1970s and that recognizable conventions of this type of literature augmented its positive reception. Equally important for its continued celebration as a notable work, however, were its uniquely Canadian themes and motifs. These themes are explored through a close examination of reviews and commentary published between 1978 and 2006. Questions are raised about reviewers’ refusal to situate the title against earlier publishing for young people in Canada and about the role that the professionalization of young adult literature and librarianship played in the reception of the title.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2012.001
Why Theory Matters
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Mallan, Kerry, and Clare Bradford, eds. Contemporary Children’s Literature and Film: Engaging with Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2011.
DOI: 10.1353/jeu.2012.001
