Elusive Childhood: Impossible Representations In Modern Fiction
Editorial Reviews
Beverly Lyon Clark, Wheaton College
"Honeyman opens the study of children’s literature in ways it needs to be opened, and makes a superb contribution."
Book Description
Elusive Childhood examines how discourse touched by the identity politics of youth might be revised for fairness. Susan Honeyman demonstrates this potential by reading representations of children from throughout the Modern episteme in works of such writers as Henry James, Edith Wharton, and James Baldwin. Identity politics have changed the way we classify literature by opening up the canon, but they have also changed the way we approach literature. We’ve learned to recognize that biology is not destiny—sex doesn’t necessarily determine gender or orientation, nor do fictitious absolutes like blood ratios measure ethnocultural identity, and so in an effort to avoid false generalizing about "others" we endorse individual self-representation, all the while recognizing how society constructs us.But when it comes to representing the position we call childhood, there is little opportunity in legitimated discourse for children’s self-representation and inadequate attention to social constructedness. Recognizing political inequity in literary representations of children, Honeyman proposes a method of reading child figuration in relief to impose as little adult prejudice as possible. This might be impossible for adults, yet it is necessary to attempt.
Elusive Childhood: Impossible Representations In Modern Fiction
Elusive Childhood: Impossible Representations In Modern Fiction,Susan Honeyman,Ohio State University Press,081421004X,20th century,American - General,American fiction,Children in literature,Children's Literature - General,History and criticism,Literary Criticism,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Popular Culture - General
Elusive Childhood: Impossible Representations In Modern Fiction
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