Suffer the little children : uses of the past in Jewish and African American children's literature /
Eichler-Levine, Jodi,
Suffer the little children : uses of the past in Jewish and African American children's literature / Jodi Eichler-Levine. - 1 online resource - North American religions .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction : Wild Things and Chosen Children -- A Word about Language -- Remembering the Way into Membership -- Crossing and Dwelling : Afterlives of Moses and Miriam. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus ; Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia -- Binding and Unbinding : Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah's Daughter. Bound to Violence : Lynching, the Holocaust, and the Limits of Representation ; Unbound in Fantasy : Reading Monstrosity and the Supernatural ; Conclusion : The Abrahamic Bargain -- Appendix : Children's Books.
This book illuminates the importance of fear and suffering in shaping African American and Jewish children's literature. Through close readings of selected titles published since 1945, the author analyzes what is at stake in portraying religious history for young people, particularly when the histories in question are traumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the Middle Passage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children's literature provides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficult collective pasts. In reading the work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester, Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, the author changes our understanding of North American religions. If children are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to tell tales of suffering to children? This book asks readers to alter their worldviews about children's literature as an "innocent" enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettled light.
0814724000 9780814724002 9780814724019 0814724019
22573/ctt8jwc4c JSTOR
Children's literature, American--History and criticism.
Children's literature, Jewish--History and criticism.
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.
History in literature.
Suffering in literature.
Jews in literature.
African Americans in literature.
Littérature de jeunesse américaine--Histoire et critique.
Histoire dans la littérature.
Souffrance dans la littérature.
Juifs dans la littérature.
Noirs américains dans la littérature.
LITERARY CRITICISM--American--General.
LITERARY CRITICISM--Children's Literature.
African Americans in literature
American literature--African American authors
Children's literature, American
History in literature
Jews in literature
Suffering in literature
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
PS490 / .E37 2013
810.9/9282
Suffer the little children : uses of the past in Jewish and African American children's literature / Jodi Eichler-Levine. - 1 online resource - North American religions .
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction : Wild Things and Chosen Children -- A Word about Language -- Remembering the Way into Membership -- Crossing and Dwelling : Afterlives of Moses and Miriam. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus ; Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia -- Binding and Unbinding : Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah's Daughter. Bound to Violence : Lynching, the Holocaust, and the Limits of Representation ; Unbound in Fantasy : Reading Monstrosity and the Supernatural ; Conclusion : The Abrahamic Bargain -- Appendix : Children's Books.
This book illuminates the importance of fear and suffering in shaping African American and Jewish children's literature. Through close readings of selected titles published since 1945, the author analyzes what is at stake in portraying religious history for young people, particularly when the histories in question are traumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the Middle Passage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children's literature provides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficult collective pasts. In reading the work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester, Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, the author changes our understanding of North American religions. If children are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to tell tales of suffering to children? This book asks readers to alter their worldviews about children's literature as an "innocent" enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettled light.
0814724000 9780814724002 9780814724019 0814724019
22573/ctt8jwc4c JSTOR
Children's literature, American--History and criticism.
Children's literature, Jewish--History and criticism.
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.
History in literature.
Suffering in literature.
Jews in literature.
African Americans in literature.
Littérature de jeunesse américaine--Histoire et critique.
Histoire dans la littérature.
Souffrance dans la littérature.
Juifs dans la littérature.
Noirs américains dans la littérature.
LITERARY CRITICISM--American--General.
LITERARY CRITICISM--Children's Literature.
African Americans in literature
American literature--African American authors
Children's literature, American
History in literature
Jews in literature
Suffering in literature
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
PS490 / .E37 2013
810.9/9282