Forms of realism in children’s literature
-
Margaret R. Higonnet
Abstract
Realism in children’s literature has been confused with didacticism, suppressed by censorship, and understudied in the nineteenth century, when crossover reading blurred the line between children and adults. Yet the roots of realism lie in earlier encyclopedic and even alphabetic forms, which modeled and foreshadowed nineteenth-century experiments in historical fiction, science fiction, and three-dimensional ‘movable’ forms that in turn supported enthusiasm for ‘illusions in motion’ and early film. Underestimating the capacity of a child-audience to appreciate sophisticated forms of representation and metanarrative, critics have focused on descriptive conceptions of mimesis in texts for the young, at the expense of self-conscious practices of verisimilitude and the comic – another dimension of realism central to the child-reader’s play with texts that has been underestimated by theorists of realism. Examples that range from nursery play to serious adolescent fiction (e.g. adventure, historical narratives, domestic fiction) expand our understanding both of children’s readings and of the potential range of realism.
Abstract
Realism in children’s literature has been confused with didacticism, suppressed by censorship, and understudied in the nineteenth century, when crossover reading blurred the line between children and adults. Yet the roots of realism lie in earlier encyclopedic and even alphabetic forms, which modeled and foreshadowed nineteenth-century experiments in historical fiction, science fiction, and three-dimensional ‘movable’ forms that in turn supported enthusiasm for ‘illusions in motion’ and early film. Underestimating the capacity of a child-audience to appreciate sophisticated forms of representation and metanarrative, critics have focused on descriptive conceptions of mimesis in texts for the young, at the expense of self-conscious practices of verisimilitude and the comic – another dimension of realism central to the child-reader’s play with texts that has been underestimated by theorists of realism. Examples that range from nursery play to serious adolescent fiction (e.g. adventure, historical narratives, domestic fiction) expand our understanding both of children’s readings and of the potential range of realism.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of illustrations xi
- Editors’ preface and acknowledgments xiii
- Note on translations, cross-references and documentation xv
- Introduction 1
-
Chapter 1. Psychological pathways
-
Core essay
- “Memories inwrought with affection” 29
-
Case studies
- The interplay between emotion and memory 135
- Situations of sympathy 151
- The poetics of disgust in realist fiction 169
- Attunement 185
- Spanish and Latin American memory novels 201
- History and untold memories 217
-
Chapter 2. Referential pathways
-
Core essay
- Material matters 233
-
Case studies
- Curating realism in a world of objects 271
- Caricature and realism 287
- Realism and allegory 303
- “Distance avails not” 317
- Toward affective realism 337
- Posthumanism and realism 351
-
Chapter 3. Formal pathways
-
Core essay
- Dynamics of realist forms 367
-
Case studies
- Forms of realism in children’s literature 473
- Early theatrical realism on page and stage 489
- Poetry, Pessoa and realism 503
- The making of the historical narrative in the Swahili utenzi 519
- Photography and dissent in John Lewis’s graphic novel March 535
- The visions of John Ball 549
-
Chapter 4. Geographical pathways
-
Core essay
- Dialogic encounters 565
-
Case studies
- Varieties of theatrical realism after Ibsen 667
- Is there a notion of ‘realism’ in traditional China? 685
- Worlding of realism 703
- The real magic in Miguel Ángel Asturias’s magical realism 721
- Narrate or describe 737
- Realism in the colony 751
- Notes on contributors 763
- Index 767
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of illustrations xi
- Editors’ preface and acknowledgments xiii
- Note on translations, cross-references and documentation xv
- Introduction 1
-
Chapter 1. Psychological pathways
-
Core essay
- “Memories inwrought with affection” 29
-
Case studies
- The interplay between emotion and memory 135
- Situations of sympathy 151
- The poetics of disgust in realist fiction 169
- Attunement 185
- Spanish and Latin American memory novels 201
- History and untold memories 217
-
Chapter 2. Referential pathways
-
Core essay
- Material matters 233
-
Case studies
- Curating realism in a world of objects 271
- Caricature and realism 287
- Realism and allegory 303
- “Distance avails not” 317
- Toward affective realism 337
- Posthumanism and realism 351
-
Chapter 3. Formal pathways
-
Core essay
- Dynamics of realist forms 367
-
Case studies
- Forms of realism in children’s literature 473
- Early theatrical realism on page and stage 489
- Poetry, Pessoa and realism 503
- The making of the historical narrative in the Swahili utenzi 519
- Photography and dissent in John Lewis’s graphic novel March 535
- The visions of John Ball 549
-
Chapter 4. Geographical pathways
-
Core essay
- Dialogic encounters 565
-
Case studies
- Varieties of theatrical realism after Ibsen 667
- Is there a notion of ‘realism’ in traditional China? 685
- Worlding of realism 703
- The real magic in Miguel Ángel Asturias’s magical realism 721
- Narrate or describe 737
- Realism in the colony 751
- Notes on contributors 763
- Index 767
