1st Edition

Rulers of Literary Playgrounds Politics of Intergenerational Play in Children’s Literature

Edited By Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak, Irena Kalla Copyright 2021
    260 Pages
    by Routledge

    260 Pages
    by Routledge

    Rulers of Literary Playgrounds: Politics of Intergenerational Play in Children’s Literature offers multifaceted reflection on interdependences between children and adults as they engage in play in literary texts and in real life. This volume brings together international children’s literature scholars who each look at children’s texts as key vehicles of intergenerational play reflecting ideologies of childhood and as objects with which children and adults interact physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Each chapter applies a distinct theoretical approach to selected children’s texts, including individual and social play, constructive play, or play deprivation. This collection of essays constitutes a timely voice in the current discussion about the importance of children’s play and adults’ contribution to it vis-à-vis the increasing limitations of opportunities for children’s playful time in contemporary societies.

    Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak, University of Wrocław with Irena Barbara Kalla, University of Wrocław

    Introduction: The Playground of Children’s Literature

    Part One: Social and Political Contexts of Play

    Chapter 1 Birgitte Beck Pristed (Aarhus University, Denmark)

    The ABC of Late Soviet Wastepaper for Pioneers and Their Parents

    Chapter 2 Jan Van Coillie (KU Leuven, Belgium)

    How Delightful is a Child at Play? Play in Children’s Literature in Flanders during the Nineteenth Century: A Systemic Approach

    Chapter 3 Sarah Hoem Iversen (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway)

    ‘When you have said your les-sons well, then you shall go out to play’: Play, Gender, and the Child Addressee in Nineteenth-century Children’s Dictionaries

    Chapter 4 Yoo Kyung Sung (University of New Mexico, USA)

    Transnationalism and Play in Mexican Children’s Childhood and Multicultural Children’s Literature in the United States

    Chapter 5 Sally Sims Stokes (Catholic University of America, USA)

    Requiem for a Rabbit Scut: The Playful Encounter in Streatfeild and Hutton’s Harlequinade

    Chapter 6 Blanka Grzegorczyk (University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University, UK)

    Girls, Boys, Bombs, Toys: Terror and Play in Contemporary Children’s Fiction

    Part Two: Constructs of Children’s Agency in Play Representations of Childhood and Play

    Chapter 7 Elliot Schreiber (Vassar College, USA)

    Branching out from the Family Tree: Fairy Tales, Imaginative Play, and Intergenerational Relations in Works by the Brothers Grimm, Ludwig Tieck, and Hans Christian Andersen

    Chapter 8 Ilaria Filograsso (University of Chieti-Pescara, Italy)

    Language Play in Adult-Child Relationships: Gianni Rodari’s Pedagogical and Literary Concepts

    Chapter 9 Elisabeth L. Nelson (University of Glasgow, UK)

    Recollecting Childhood: Writing the Child at Play

    Chapter 10 Taraneh Matloob Haghanikar (University of Northern Iowa, USA) & Linda M. Pavonetti (Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, USA)

    Representations of Play in Caldecott Medal and Honor Books during 1938-1949 and 2001-2014

    Part Three: Materialities of Play

    Chapter 11 Jennifer Farrar (University of Glasgow, UK)

    Encounters with Metafiction: Playing with Ideas of What Counts When It Comes to Reading

    Chapter 12 Zofia Zasacka (National Library and the Educational Research Institute, Poland)

    Playing and Reading Together: The Beginnings of Literary Socialization

    Chapter 13 Elżbieta Jamróz-Stolarska (University of Wroclaw, Poland)

    Crossing Boundaries in Children’s Books: The Role of the Author, Illustrator and Publisher in Creating Playful Books for Young Readers

    Coda

    Chapter 14 Jean Webb (University of Worcester, UK)

    Reflection on Playing and Puzzling with Alice and Tom

    Biography

    Justyna Deszcz-Tryhubczak is Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Wrocław. She has published among others on utopianism in children’s literature and participatory approaches in children’s literature studies. She is Director of the Center for Young People’s Literature and Culture at the Institute of English Studies (University of Wrocław).

    Irena Barbara Kalla is Associate Professor at the University of Wrocław, Dutch Studies. She has published on Dutch and Flemish literature, including Huisbeelden in de moderne Nederlandstalige poëzie (2012) and Minoes, Minnie, Minu en andere katse streken (with J. Van Coillie, 2017). She is Coordinator of the Centre for Research on Children’s and Young Adult Literature at the University of Wrocław.