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 : 9 black and white illustrations - North American Religions ; 4 .
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- A Word about Language -- 1. Remembering the Way into Membership -- Part I: Crossing and Dwelling -- Afterlives of Moses and Miriam -- 2. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus -- 3. Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia -- Part II: Binding and Unbinding -- Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah’s Daughter -- 4. Bound to Violence -- 5. Unbound in Fantasy -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
Thiscompelling work examines classic and contemporary Jewish and African Americanchildren’s literature. Through close readings of selected titles publishedsince 1945, Jodi Eichler-Levine analyzes what is at stake in portraying religioushistory for young people, particularly when the histories in question aretraumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the MiddlePassage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children’s literatureprovides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficultcollective pasts.In readingthe work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester,Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, Eichler-Levine changes ourunderstanding of North American religions. She illuminates how narratives ofboth suffering and nostalgia graft future citizens into ideals of Americanliberal democracy, and into religious communities that can be understoodaccording to recognizable notions of reading, domestic respectability, andnational sacrifice. Ifchildren are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to telltales of suffering to children, and can we imagine modes of memory that movepast utopian notions of children as our future? Suffer the Little Childrenasks readers to alter their worldviews about children’s literature as an“innocent” enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettledlight.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780814722992 9780814724002
10.18574/nyu/9780814722992.001.0001 doi
African Americans in literature.
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.
Children's literature, American--History and criticism.
Children's literature, Jewish--History and criticism.
History in literature.
Jews in literature.
Suffering in literature.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion.
PS490 / .E37 2016
810.99282
Suffer the Little Children : Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children's Literature / Jodi Eichler-Levine. - 1 online resource : 9 black and white illustrations - North American Religions ; 4 .
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- A Word about Language -- 1. Remembering the Way into Membership -- Part I: Crossing and Dwelling -- Afterlives of Moses and Miriam -- 2. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus -- 3. Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia -- Part II: Binding and Unbinding -- Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah’s Daughter -- 4. Bound to Violence -- 5. Unbound in Fantasy -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author
restricted access http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec
Thiscompelling work examines classic and contemporary Jewish and African Americanchildren’s literature. Through close readings of selected titles publishedsince 1945, Jodi Eichler-Levine analyzes what is at stake in portraying religioushistory for young people, particularly when the histories in question aretraumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the MiddlePassage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children’s literatureprovides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficultcollective pasts.In readingthe work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester,Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, Eichler-Levine changes ourunderstanding of North American religions. She illuminates how narratives ofboth suffering and nostalgia graft future citizens into ideals of Americanliberal democracy, and into religious communities that can be understoodaccording to recognizable notions of reading, domestic respectability, andnational sacrifice. Ifchildren are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to telltales of suffering to children, and can we imagine modes of memory that movepast utopian notions of children as our future? Suffer the Little Childrenasks readers to alter their worldviews about children’s literature as an“innocent” enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettledlight.
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
In English.
9780814722992 9780814724002
10.18574/nyu/9780814722992.001.0001 doi
African Americans in literature.
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.
Children's literature, American--History and criticism.
Children's literature, Jewish--History and criticism.
History in literature.
Jews in literature.
Suffering in literature.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology of Religion.
PS490 / .E37 2016
810.99282