1st Edition

Ethics and Children's Literature

By Claudia Mills Copyright 2014
278 Pages
by Routledge

278 Pages
by Routledge

278 Pages
by Routledge

Exploring the ethical questions posed by, in, and about children’s literature, this collection examines the way texts intended for children raise questions of value, depict the moral development of their characters, and call into attention shared moral presuppositions. The essays in Part I look at various past attempts at conveying moral messages to children and interrogate their underlying... Read more

Introduction

Part I The Dilemma of Didacticism: Attempts to Shape Children as Moral Beings

1 Transmitting Ethics through Books of Golden Deeds for Children Claudia Nelson

2 Sermonizing in New York: The Children's Magazines of Mary Mapes Dodge and Jose Marti Emma Adelaida Otheguy

3 Talking to Children about Race: Children's Literature in a Segregated Era, 1930-1945 Moira Hinderer

Part II Ethical Themes in Classic and Contemporary Texts

4 Discernment and the Moral Life in Prince Caspian and the Later Narnia Chronicles  Emanuelle Burton

5 Making a Difference: Ethical Recognition through Otherness in Madelein L'Engle's Fiction Mary Jeanette Moran

6 A Prosaics of the Hundred Acre Wood: Ethics in A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner  Niall Nance-Carroll

7 Virtuous Transgressors, Not Moral Saints: Protagonists in Contemporary Children's Literature Jani L. Barker

8 Model Children, Little Rebels, and Moral Transgressors: Virtuous Childhood Images in Taiwanese Juvenile Fiction in the 1960s Andrea Mei-Ying Wu

Part III Ethical Criticism of Children's Literature

9 The Rights and Wrongs of Anthropomorphism in Picture Books Lisa Rowe Fraustino

10 Lewis, Tolkien, and the Ethics of Imaginary Wars Suzanne Rahn

11 Heeding Rousseau's Advice: Some Ethical Reservations about Addressing Prejudice through Children's Literature Claudia Mills

Part IV Ethical Responses to Children's Literature: Identification, Recognition, Adaptation, Conversation

12 The Ethics of Reading Narrative Voice: An Anti-Bakhtinian View Leona W. Fisher

13 Prizing Social Justice: The Jane Addams Children's Book Award Ramona Caponegro

14 Katniss Everdeen's Emerging Moral Consciousness in The Hunger Games  Martha Rainbolt

15 Using Children's Literature as a Spark for Ethical Discussion: Stories that Deal with Death Sara Goering

Biography

Claudia Mills is Associate Professor Emerita of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. She is the author of many books for children, most recently Zero Tolerance (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).