The term children's literature criticism includes both generalist discussions of the relationship between

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

and

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, mo ...

and literary analyses of a specific works of children's literature. Some academics consider

young adult literature Young adult fiction (YA) is a category of fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age. While the genre is primarily targeted at adolescents, approximately half of YA readers are adults. The subject matter and genres of YA correlate ...

to be included under the rubric of 'children's literature.' Nearly every school of theoretical thought has been applied to children's literature, most commonly

reader response Reader-response criticism is a school of literary theory that focuses on the reader (or "audience") and their experience of a literary work, in contrast to other schools and theories that focus attention primarily on the author or the content and f ...

(Chambers 1980) and

new criticism New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as ...

. However, other schools have been applied in controversial and influential ways, including

Orientalism In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...

(Nodelman 1992),

feminist theory Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, fictional, or philosophical discourse. It aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. It examines women's and men's social roles, experiences, interests, chores, and feminist ...

(Paul 1987),

postmodernism Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or Rhetorical modes, mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by philosophical skepticism, skepticis ...

(Stevenson 1994),

structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...

(Neumeyer 1977),

post-structuralism Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...

(Rose, 1984, Lesnik-Oberstein, 1994) and many others.

Approaches

Child focused

Early children's literature critics aimed to learn how children read literature specifically (rather than the mechanics of reading itself) so that they could recommend "good books" for children. These early critics were often teachers, librarians and other educationalists. The critics often disagreed about what books they think children would like, and why, and about which books will be "good" for children and why. Though many critics are still child-centric, the discipline has expanded to include other modes of analysis. As children's literature criticism started developing as an academic discipline (roughly in the past thirty years or so, see historical overviews by Hunt (1991) and McGillis (1997)), children's literature criticism became involved with wider work in

and

cultural studies Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...

Construction of the child

Many children's literature critics now point out that children are not one group, but differ according to gender, ethnicity, religious background, and so on. Feminist children's literature critics such as Lissa Paul (1987) therefore try to work out how boys and girls read differently, for instance. Other critics (for instance, Peter Hunt (1991), Perry Nodelman (1992), John Stephens (1992), and Roderick McGillis (1996)) take this idea a step further and argue that children are often "colonized" by adults, including children's literature critics, because adults speak on behalf of children instead of letting children express themselves. However, these critics too can not agree on what then are "true" children expressing themselves, and which books are therefore "good" for them. Finally, a few critics, notably

Jacqueline Rose Jacqueline Rose, FBA (born 1949 in London) is a British academic who is Professor of Humanities at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities. Life and work Jacqueline Rose is known for her work on the relationship between psychoanalysis, fem ...

(1984) and Karin Lesnik-Oberstein (1994 and 2004) take this discussion even further, arguing that identities are created and not "inherent", and that in the case of an identity such as "childhood" it is created by "adults" in the light of their own perceptions of themselves. That is, "adulthood" defines "childhood" in relation to differences and similarities it perceives to itself. This

post-structuralist Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...

approach is similar to that argued by critics in

gender studies Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analysing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. The field ...

such as

Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...

and is widely accepted and used in

sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

and

anthropological Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

studies of

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

(Jenks 1996; Jenks, James and Prout 1997).

Textual focus

Many scholars approach children's literature from the perspective of literary studies, examining the text ''as text'' without focus on audience. Stephens and McCallum (1998) discuss the

intertextuality Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text, either through deliberate compositional strategies such as quotation, allusion, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche or parody,Gerard Genette (1997) ''Paratexts'p.18/ref>H ...

of children's literature, while Rose explores the identifying characteristics of the

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

. Nodelman (1990) looks at the synthesis of text and illustration in picturebooks.

Cultural studies focus

Culture studies scholars investigate children's literature as an aspect of culture. Children's literature, in this light, is a product consumed like other aspects of children's culture: video games, television, and the like. For more analysis of children's culture in general, see Jenkins. For literature in particular as cultural artifact, see Mackey.

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *{{cite journal , author=Stevenson, Deborah , title='If You Read This Last Sentence, It Won't Tell You Anything': Postmodernism, Self-Referentiality, and ''The Stinky Cheese Man'' , journal=Signal , year=1994 , volume=19 , pages= 32–34 , doi=10.1353/chq.0.0989

External links

Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media (CIRCL)Children's Literature AssociationNational Centre for Research in Children's Literature

Criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''"the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad q ...

Literary criticism Cultural studies