The Family in English Children's Literature
From the trials of families experiencing divorce, as in Anne Fine’s Madame Doubtfire, to the childcare problems highlighted in Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker, it might seem that the traditional family and the ideals that accompany it have long vanished. However, in The Family in English Children’s Literature, Ann Alston argues that this is far from the case. She suggests that despite the tales of family woe portrayed in children’s literature, the desire for the happy, contented nuclear family remains inherent within the ideological subtexts of children’s literature. Using 1818 as a starting point, Alston investigates families in children’s literature at their most intimate, focusing on how they share their spaces, their ideals of home, and even on what they eat for dinner. What emerges from Alston’s study are not so much the contrasts that exist between periods, but rather the startling similarities of the ideology of family intrinsic to children’s literature. The Family in English Children’s Literature sheds light on who maintains control, who behaves, and how significant children’s literature is in shaping our ideas about what makes a family "good."

"1012290920"
The Family in English Children's Literature
From the trials of families experiencing divorce, as in Anne Fine’s Madame Doubtfire, to the childcare problems highlighted in Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker, it might seem that the traditional family and the ideals that accompany it have long vanished. However, in The Family in English Children’s Literature, Ann Alston argues that this is far from the case. She suggests that despite the tales of family woe portrayed in children’s literature, the desire for the happy, contented nuclear family remains inherent within the ideological subtexts of children’s literature. Using 1818 as a starting point, Alston investigates families in children’s literature at their most intimate, focusing on how they share their spaces, their ideals of home, and even on what they eat for dinner. What emerges from Alston’s study are not so much the contrasts that exist between periods, but rather the startling similarities of the ideology of family intrinsic to children’s literature. The Family in English Children’s Literature sheds light on who maintains control, who behaves, and how significant children’s literature is in shaping our ideas about what makes a family "good."

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The Family in English Children's Literature

The Family in English Children's Literature

by Ann Alston
The Family in English Children's Literature

The Family in English Children's Literature

by Ann Alston

Hardcover

$170.00 
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Overview

From the trials of families experiencing divorce, as in Anne Fine’s Madame Doubtfire, to the childcare problems highlighted in Jacqueline Wilson’s Tracy Beaker, it might seem that the traditional family and the ideals that accompany it have long vanished. However, in The Family in English Children’s Literature, Ann Alston argues that this is far from the case. She suggests that despite the tales of family woe portrayed in children’s literature, the desire for the happy, contented nuclear family remains inherent within the ideological subtexts of children’s literature. Using 1818 as a starting point, Alston investigates families in children’s literature at their most intimate, focusing on how they share their spaces, their ideals of home, and even on what they eat for dinner. What emerges from Alston’s study are not so much the contrasts that exist between periods, but rather the startling similarities of the ideology of family intrinsic to children’s literature. The Family in English Children’s Literature sheds light on who maintains control, who behaves, and how significant children’s literature is in shaping our ideas about what makes a family "good."


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780415988858
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 04/03/2008
Series: Children's Literature and Culture , #53
Pages: 176
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Ann Alston lectures at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK, with a focus in Welsh Children’s Literature and nineteenth-century constructions of the child. She received her Ph.D in Children’s Literature at Cardiff University, Wales, in 2005.

Table of Contents

Series Editor’s Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Section 1

Chapter One: History of Family

The Growth of a Cherished Institution

Chapter Two: 1818-1914 Depictions of the Nineteenth and Turn of the Century Family

From a Good Beating to the Flight to Neverland

Chapter Three: 1920-2003 Depictions of the Twentieth-Century Family

From Just William to Harry Potter

Section 2

Chapter Foure: There’s No Place like Home

Home and Family in Children’s Literature

Chapter Five: A Room of One’s Own?

Spaces, Families and Power

Chapter Six: Edible Fictions: Fictional Food

The Family Meal in Children’s Literature

Conclusion

Notes Bibliography

Index

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