Children's Literature and Social Change: Some Case Studies from Barbara Hofland to Philip Pullman - Softcover

Dennis Butts

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0718892089 ISBN 13: 9780718892081

Publisher: James Clarke and Co Ltd, 2010

Synopsis

While there are many books about children's literature, few discuss it within its social context or investigate the ways writers reflect or react to change in society.

About this title

Review:

"...a useful brief introduction...The writing is clear and jargon-free"
--Times Literary Supplement, September 10, 2010

'It puts Dennis in a great tradition inhabited by such people as Ferdinand de Saussure and Roland Barthes...this is a fascinating and profound book which on many occasions broke new ground and is one which will be a permanent fixture on the Birkbeck MA!' --Michael Rosen, Children's Book History Society Newsletter No.10, August 2011

Butts is surely one of the pioneers of the discipline, helping to establish its academic credibility in the UK, at least, and involved in establishing the first MA in the subject at the University of Reading. This particular volume draws on his strengths as a critic and gives his individual voice room to shine through. [...] this is a fine collection of interconnected essays. Butts s range of reference is truly astounding not only his first-hand knowledge of children s book (including obscure works) and the associated secondary criticism, but also of social and cultural theory, and of history. As ever, Butts wears his knowledge lightly, leavening his criticism with delightful asides and unexpected links. --David Rudd, Children s Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 4, Winter 2013

'The writing is clear and jargon-free...and there are fresh insights into familiar texts such as Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped and E. Nesbit's The Railway Children, while lesser-known writers like Amy Le Feuvre also got attention.' --Norma Clarke, in The Times Literary Supplement, September, 2010

About the Author:

Dennis Butts, a former Chairman of The Children's Books History Society, taught children's literature at Reading University. He has a lifelong interest in the relationship between politics, society and literature, and has written on many aspects of children's books and nineteenth-century literature. He co-edited From the Dairyman's Daughter to Worrals of the WAAF, also published by The Lutterworth Press.

About this edition

• Publisher: James Clarke and Co Ltd
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0718892089
• ISBN 13: 9780718892081
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 210