Contesting Childhood: Autobiography, Trauma, and Memory

by Kate Douglas

Overview

The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a surge in the publication and popularity of autobiographical writings about childhood. Linking literary and cultural studies, Contesting Childhood draws on a varied selection of works from a diverse range of authors—from first-time to experienced writers. Kate Douglas explores Australian accounts of the Stolen Generation, contemporary American and British narratives of abuse, the bestselling memoirs of Andrea Ashworth, Augusten Burroughs, Robert Drewe, Mary Karr, Frank McCourt, Dave Pelzer, and Lorna Sage, among many others.

Drawing on trauma and memory studies and theories of authorship and readership, Contesting Childhood offers commentary on the triumphs, trials, and tribulations that have shaped this genre. Douglas examines the content of the narratives and the limits of their representations, as well as some of the ways in which autobiographies of youth have become politically important and influential. This study enables readers to discover how stories configure childhood within cultural memory and the public sphere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813546643
Publisher:	Rutgers University Press
Publication date:	01/21/2010
Series:	The Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

KATE DOUGLASS is a senior lecturer in the department of English, creative writing, and Australian studies at Flinders University, South Australia. She is the coeditor of Trauma Texts.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1 Creating Childhood
Chapter 2 Consuming Childhood
Chapter 3 Authoring Childhood
Chapter 4 Scripts for Remembering
Chapter 5 Scripts for Remembering
Chapter 6 Ethics
Chapter 7 The Ethics of Reading
Conclusion Writing Childhood in the Twenty-First Century
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Douglas offers a rich trove of insights into how versions of childhood are sold to fulfill a range of political purposes, both progressive and regressive, and how speaking through the voice of the traumatized child makes it difficult to tell the difference."

Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

"Douglas offers a rich trove of insights into how versions of childhood are sold to fulfill a range of political purposes, both progressive and regressive, and how speaking through the voice of the traumatized child makes it difficult to tell the difference."

From the Publisher