This collection argues that the romanticized conflation of childhood and innocence in American culture has been on a steady decline at least since the 1960s--largely due to postmodern critiques of overarching narratives involving both the child and the innocence of childhood. Additionally, this collection highlights and analyzes examples of childrens literature and culture throughout the 20th century (and into the 21st) which pointedly defy traditional, idealized notions of childhood. Such an analysis serves to reiterate the idea that the romanticized notion of childhood which has pervaded American culture for over two centuries is little more than a cultural construction that bears little to no resemblance to the actual, lived experience of American children.
Recenzijos
Childhood and Innocence in American Culture examines the problematic concept of innocence as it has too frequently been linked to Romantic notions of childhood. Deconstructing innocence in terms of race, gender, social class, and historical (mis)representations, this volume examines the transgressive potentiality of childhood as it is depicted in literary mediums created for children and adult audiences alike. -- Roberta Seelinger Trites, Illinois State University
Introduction: The Death of Childhood, James M. Curtis
Part One: Deconstructing 20th Century Childhood
Chapter One: The Domesticated Adventuress: Dorothy Gale, Ozma of Oz, and the
Pitfalls of Princess-hood, Rodney Marcel Fierce
Chapter Two: A Place for You: Subjectivity and Representation in The
Brownies Book, James M. Curtis
Chapter Three: Homecoming: Finding (and Losing) the American Child, Rebecca
Long
Part Two: Towards a More Postmodern Childhood: Challenging Childhood
Innocence in the Late 20th and Early 21st Century
Chapter Four: Growing Up Too Fast, Too Soon: The Child Prodigy in Late
Postmodernist Literature, Oliver J. Hancock
Chapter Five: In Support of Idyllic Childhood: How Book Challenges Reveal
American Views on Childhood and Adolescent Innocence in the 1980s and into
the 21st Century, Sarah K. Mazur
Chapter Six: Fear of Science in the Cold War and the Unknown Childhood: The
Its Alive Trilogy, Erika Tiburcio Moreno
Chapter Seven: Four Little Activists: The Death of Black Childhood Innocence
in Spike Lees 4 Little Girls, Douglas C. MacLeod, Jr.
Chapter Eight: Technically Im 112: Youth and Darkness in Avatar: the Last
Airbender, Colleen Etman
James M. Curtis is instructor of English at Louisiana State University Shreveport.
