The Gothic in Children's Literature

The Gothic in Children's Literature PDF

Author: Anna Jackson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-11

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 113590281X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

From creepy picture books to Harry Potter, Lemony Snicket, the Spiderwick Chronicles, and countless vampire series for young adult readers, fear has become a dominant mode of entertainment for young readers. The last two decades have seen an enormous growth in the critical study of two very different genres, the Gothic and children’s literature. The Gothic, concerned with the perverse and the forbidden, with adult sexuality and religious or metaphysical doubts and heresies, seems to represent everything that children’s literature, as a genre, was designed to keep out. Indeed, this does seem to be very much the way that children’s literature was marketed in the late eighteenth century, at exactly the same time that the Gothic was really taking off, written by the same women novelists who were responsible for the promotion of a safe and segregated children’s literature. This collection examines the early intersection of the Gothic and children’s literature and the contemporary manifestations of the gothic impulse, revealing that Gothic elements can, in fact, be traced in children’s literature for as long as children have been reading.

The Gothic Child

The Gothic Child PDF

Author: Margarita Georgieva

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-10-17

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 1137306076

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Fascination with the dark and death threats are now accepted features of contemporary fantasy and fantastic fictions for young readers. These go back to the early gothic genre in which child characters were extensively used by authors. The aim of this book is to rediscover the children in their work.

Reading in the Dark

Reading in the Dark PDF

Author: Jessica R. McCort

Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi

Published: 2016-04-28

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 149680645X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Dark novels, shows, and films targeted toward children and young adults are proliferating wildly. It is even more crucial now to understand the methods by which such texts have traditionally operated and how those methods have been challenged, abandoned, and appropriated. Reading in the Dark fills a gap in criticism devoted to children's popular culture by concentrating on horror, an often-neglected genre. These scholars explore the intersection between horror, popular culture, and children's cultural productions, including picture books, fairy tales, young adult literature, television, and monster movies. Reading in the Dark looks at horror texts for children with deserved respect, weighing the multitude of benefits they can provide for young readers and viewers. Refusing to write off the horror genre as campy, trite, or deforming, these essays instead recognize many of the texts and films categorized as "scary" as among those most widely consumed by children and young adults. In addition, scholars consider how adult horror has been domesticated by children's literature and culture, with authors and screenwriters turning that which was once horrifying into safe, funny, and delightful books and films. Scholars likewise examine the impetus behind such re-envisioning of the adult horror novel or film as something appropriate for the young. The collection investigates both the constructive and the troublesome aspects of scary books, movies, and television shows targeted toward children and young adults. It considers the complex mechanisms by which these texts communicate overt messages and hidden agendas, and it treats as well the readers' experiences of such mechanisms.

New Directions in Children’s Gothic

New Directions in Children’s Gothic PDF

Author: Anna Jackson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-03-27

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1317444248

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Children’s literature today is dominated by the gothic mode, and it is in children’s gothic fictions that we find the implications of cultural change most radically questioned and explored. This collection of essays looks at what is happening in the children’s Gothic now when traditional monsters have become the heroes, when new monsters have come into play, when globalisation brings Harry Potter into China and yaoguai into the children’s Gothic, and when childhood itself and children’s literature as a genre can no longer be thought of as an uncontested space apart from the debates and power struggles of an adult domain. We look in detail at series such as The Mortal Instruments, Twilight, Chaos Walking, The Power of Five, Skulduggery Pleasant, and Cirque du Freak; at novels about witches and novels about changelings; at the Gothic in China, Japan and Oceania; and at authors including Celia Rees, Frances Hardinge, Alan Garner and Laini Taylor amongst many others. At a time when the energies and anxieties of children’s novels can barely be contained anymore within the genre of children’s literature, spilling over into YA and adult literature, we need to pay attention. Weird things are happening and they matter.

Twenty-First-Century Children's Gothic

Twenty-First-Century Children's Gothic PDF

Author: Chloe Germaine Buckley

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Published: 2018-01-09

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1474430201

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Brings Ben Jonson to the twenty-first century by reading Volpone through psychoanalysis, poststructuralism and Marxism

Young Adult Gothic Fiction

Young Adult Gothic Fiction PDF

Author: Michelle J. Smith

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2021-06-15

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 1786837528

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Focus on young adult literature - This focus on young adult literature means that this book expands scholarship specifically in this area. Focus on the Gothic for young people – Gothic texts are very popular in children’s and young adult literature, but there hasn’t been a lot of scholarship on the Gothic for adolescents. This book expands our knowledge of how the Gothic intersects with young adult literature. Includes coverage of YA fiction from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, a range of genres that intersect with the Gothic (including historical fiction and fairy tale), as well as forms such as the short story and graphic novel.

Uncanny Youth

Uncanny Youth PDF

Author: Suzanne Manizza Roszak

Publisher: Gothic Literary Studies

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781786838667

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A literary study of childhood in the American Gothic. Childhood in Gothic literature has often served colonialist, white supremacist, and patriarchal ideologies, but in Uncanny Youth, Suzanne Manizza Roszak highlights hemispheric American writers who subvert these scripts. In the hands of authors ranging from Octavio Paz and Maryse Condé to N. Scott Momaday and Tracey Baptiste, Gothic conventions critique systems of power in the Americas. As fictional children confront shifting configurations of imperialism and patterns of gendered, anti-queer violence, their uncanny stories call on readers to reckon with intersecting forms of injustice.

The Vanishing Trick

The Vanishing Trick PDF

Author: Jenni Spangler

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's UK

Published: 2020-04-30

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1471190374

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

'A thrilling, original, evocative and eerie tale - I adored it!’ Michelle Harrison, author of A Pinch of Magic 'A thrilling page-turner. Madame Pinchbeck is a gloriously Dickensian villain’ Abi Elphinstone, author of Sky Song 'Ghosts, gadgets, likeable villains and unlikely heroes: The Vanishing Trick is a dark and dazzling adventure’ Emma Carroll, author of Letters from the Lighthouse 'A completely enthralling tale, oozing with atmosphere and originality’ Catherine Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper's Island 'Jenni Spangler is the next big voice in children’s magical history novels’ Lucy Powrie, author of The Paper & Hearts Society 'Deliciously dark and atmospheric … I couldn’t get enough' Nizrana Farook, author of The Girl Who Stole An Elephant 'A spectacular heart-stopping adventure in a dark and dangerous Victorian world' Tamsin Winter, author of Jemima Small Versus the Universe 'An eventful gothic adventure full of secrets and surprises' Sunday Times Book of The Week? Step into a world of secrets, folklore and illusions, where nothing is as it seems and magic is at play… Madame Augustina Pinchbeck, travels the country conjuring the spirits of dearly departed loved ones... for a price. Whilst her ability to contact ghosts is a game of smoke and mirrors, there is real magic behind her tricks too - if you know where to look. Through a magical trade, she persuades children to part with precious objects, promising to use her powers to help them. But Pinchbeck is a deceiver, instead turning their items into enchanted Cabinets that bind the children to her and into which she can vanish and summon them at will. When Pinchbeck captures orphan Leander, events are set into motion that see him and his new friends Charlotte and Felix, in a race against time to break Pinchbeck’s spell, before one of them vanishes forever… #TheVanishingTrick A historical adventure with a magical twist from an outstanding debut talent. Perfect for fans of Michelle Harrison, Sophie Anderson and Emma Carroll.

The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature

The Gothic Fairy Tale in Young Adult Literature PDF

Author: Joseph Abbruscato

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-07-15

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1476617252

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Rooted in the oral traditions of cultures worldwide, fairy tales have long played an integral part in children's upbringing. Filled with gothic and fantastical elements like monsters, dragons, evil step-parents and fairy godmothers, fairy tales remain important tools for teaching children about themselves, and the dangers and joys of the world around them. In this collection of new essays, literary scholars examine gothic elements in more recent entries into the fairy tale genre--for instance, David Almond's Skellig, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Coraline and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events--exploring such themes as surviving incest, and the capture and consumption of children. Although children's literature has seen an increase in reality-based stories that allow children no room for escape from their everyday lives, these essays demonstrate the continuing importance of fairy tales in helping them live well-rounded lives.

The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic

The Cambridge Companion to American Gothic PDF

Author: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-11-23

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 1107117143

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This Companion offers a thorough overview of the diversity of the American Gothic tradition from its origins to the present.