Mothers in Children's and Young Adult Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Postfeminism

by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (Editor), Karen Coats (Editor)

Overview

From didactic nursery rhymes to Coraline and The Hunger Games, an engagement with the vital figure of the mother Contributions by Robin Calland, Lauren Causey, Karen Coats, Sara K. Day, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, Anna Katrina Gutierrez, Adrienne Kertzer, Koeun Kim, Alexandra Kotanko, Jennifer Mitchell, Mary Jeanette Moran, Julie Pfeiffer, and Donelle Ruwe Living or dead, present or absent, sadly dysfunctional or merrily adequate, the figure of the mother bears enormous freight across a child's emotional and intellectual life. Given the vital role literary mothers play in books for young readers, it is remarkable how little scholarly attention has been paid to the representation of mothers outside of fairy tales and beyond studies of gender stereotypes. This collection of thirteen essays begins to fill a critical gap by bringing together a range of theoretical perspectives by a rich mix of senior scholars and new voices. Following an introduction in which the coeditors describe key trends in interdisciplinary scholarship, the book's first section focuses on the pedagogical roots of maternal influence in early children's literature. The next section explores the shifting cultural perspectives and subjectivities of the twentieth century. The third section examines the interplay of fantasy, reality, and the ethical dimensions of literary mothers. The collection ends with readings of postfeminist motherhood, from contemporary realism to dystopian fantasy. The range of critical approaches in this volume will provide multiple inroads for scholars to investigate richer readings of mothers in children's and young adult literature. Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Ashford, Connecticut, is professor and chair of the Department of English at Eastern Connecticut State University. She has edited three collections of short fiction for young adults and authored several books for young readers, including the 2010 Milkweed Prize winner, The Hole in the Wall. Karen Coats, Normal, Illinois, is professor of English at Illinois State University. She is author of Looking Glass and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children's Literature and Children's Literature and the Developing Reader and coeditor of Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature and The Gothic in Children's Literature: Haunting the Borders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496806994
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	05/05/2016
Series:	Children's Literature Association Series
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Ashford, Connecticut, is professor and chair of the Department of English at Eastern Connecticut State University. She has edited three collections of short fiction for young adults and authored several books for young readers, including the 2010 Milkweed Prize winner, The Hole in the Wall.


Karen Coats, Normal, Illinois, is professor of English at Illinois State University. She is author of Looking Glass and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children's Literature and Children's Literature and the Developing Reader and coeditor of Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature and The Gothic in Children's Literature: Haunting the Borders.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Mothers Wanted Lisa Rowe Fraustino Karen Coats 3

Part I Historical Legacies: Maternal Instruction and Delight

Chapter 1 Barbauld and the Body-Part Game: Maternal Pedagogy in the Long Eighteenth Century Donelle Ruwe 27

Chapter 2 Juliana Ewing's Six to Sixteen: Realizing and Rewriting Maternal Legacy Koeun Kim 45

Chapter 3 The Romance of Othermothering in Nineteenth-Century Backfisch Books Julie Pfeiffer 59

Part II Mothering in Modernity: Shifting Gultures and Subjectivities

Chapter 4 The Women Who Sent Their Children Away: Mothers in Kindertransport Fiction Adrienne Kertzer 77

Chapter 5 Minority Mama: Rejecting the Mainstream Mothering Model Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore 96

Chapter 6 Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and the Expansive Cycle of Mothering while Black Lauren Causey Karen Coats 113

Chapter 7 "The hills were in her bones": Living in the Blend of Mothers and Environments Anna Katrina Gutierrez 133

Part III The Mother-Child Bond: Fantasy and Desire for the Real

Chapter 8 Animal Mathers and Animal Babies in Picture Books Robin Calland 153

Chapter 9 A Daughter's Sacrifice: Saving the "Good-Enough Mother" from the Good Mother Fantasy Alexandra Kotanko 170

Chapter 10 "The Mother Was the Mother, Even When She Wasn't". Maternal Care Ethics and Children's Fantasy Mary Jeanette Moran 182

Part IV Performing Postfeminist Motherhood

Chapter 11 "I Would Never Be Strong Enough": Sarah Dessen's Postfeminist Mothers Sara K. Day 201

Chapter 12 Abandoning Mothers Lisa Rowe Fraustino 216

Chapter 13 "A Mom-Shaped Hole": Psychoanalysis and the Dystopian Maternal Jennifer Mitchell 233

Contributors 251

Index 255

Editorial Reviews

"Mothers in Children's and Young Adult Literature is an exciting—even brilliant—collection of diverse criticism on a surprisingly under-studied topic. The thirteen astute essays chosen by Lisa Rowe Fraustino and Karen Coats use a wide array of theoretical approaches to investigate topics that range from innovation in an eighteenth century book for toddlers to animal mothering in picture books to the postfeminism of recent young adult novels."

—Beverly Lyon Clark, author of Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Children's Literature in America

From the Publisher