Description
Book SynopsisUtilizing new historicist, feminist, and cultural studies critiques, these essays by leading scholars provide new perspectives on early children''s literary texts. The essays are divided into four parts: Part 1 critiques the rise of children''s literature throughout the eighteenth-century, Part 2 focuses on the rise of the female educator and the ''rational dames'', Part 3 contains three essays on the politics of pedagogy and the child, Part 4 is a detailed examination of the work of children''s literature scholar Mitzi Myers (1939-2001). Scholars of children''s literature, literary history, and gender studies will find this volume very illuminating.
Trade ReviewIt is a fortunate thing that the festschrift in honor of Mitzi Myers is a good and useful book. I shall certainly put it on the reading list for my graduate level history of children's literature class in the spring, and I am sure that others will also fund uses for a collection of essays that are intelligent, sometimes surprising, and enjoyable to read....The book is notable for the breadth of the scholarship evoked, and the various footnotes and references along with this Myers bibliography might themselves be worth the cost of the volume to a scholar entering the field. * Children's Literature Association Quarterly *
...a helpful survey...relevant and of an enduring value. * Children's Books History Society *
Culturing the Child is both a significant book in its own right and a fitting tribute to a scholar who believed that, from its earliest days, writing for children was—and needed to be—concerned with fundamental moral questions... * Victorian Studies, vol. 48, no. 3 (2006) *
This collection continues Myers's lifelong project of bringing feminist, New Historicist, and cultural studies methods to early children's texts. Essays on contexts of this literature include a description of the physical presence and preparation of early children's books, a comparison of moral lessons with fairy tale fantasy, and the relationships women and children had to reading in the 18th century. Topics on the "rational dames," women writers and educators, include analyses of the works of Anna Barbaud, Hannah Moore, and Sara Trimmer. Those on the politics and pedagogy of the child include the fate of Scott's Ivanhoe, reactions to stories of heroism in St. Nicholas Magazine, and girls' educational reform in the fiction of L.T. Meade. The volume closes with personal and scholarly memoirs of Myers, as well as a bibliography of her work. * Reference and Research Book News *
Table of ContentsPart 1 Acknowledgments Part 2 Introduction Part 3 Part 1: Creating the Contexts of Children's Literature Chapter 4 1 The Book on the Bookseller's Shelf and the Book in the English Child's Hand Chapter 5 2 Virtue in the Guise of Vice: The Making and Unmaking of Morality from Fairy Tale Fantasy Chapter 6 3 "Delightful Task!": Women, Children, and Reading in the Mid-Eighteenth Century Part 7 Part 2: Reading the Rational Dames Chapter 8 4 Mother of All Discourses: Anna Barbauld's Lessons for Children Chapter 9 5 Gender, Nationalism, and Science in Hannah More's Pedagogical Plays for Children Chapter 10 6 "A Conservative Woman Doing Radical Things": Sarah Trimmer and The Guardian of Education Part 11 Part 3: The Politics of Pedagogy and the Child Chapter 12 7 The Making and Unmaking of a Children's Classic: The Case of Scott's Ivanhoe Chapter 13 8 Heroism Reconsidered: Negotiating Autonomy in St. Nicholas Magazine (1873-1914) Chapter 14 9 Worlds of Girls: Educational Reform and Fictional Form in L.T. Mead's School Stories Part 15 Part 4: Remembering Mitzi Myers Chapter 16 10 Mitzi Myers: A Memoir (9 October 1939 to 5 November 2001) Chapter 17 11 The Scholarly Legacy of Mitzi Myers Chapter 18 12 A Bibliography of Mitzi Myers's Scholarly Works Part 19 Index Part 20 About the Contributors
