Revisiting Some Icons of the Golden Age

Authors

  • Faye Cheatley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl1994vol5no2-3art1415

Keywords:

children's literature, literary criticism, Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, R.M. Ballantyne, The Coral Island, Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Abstract

To approach and reread childhood literature is fraught with problems. The recollection is often replaced by a new adult version of reality, much of which threatens to shatter the illusion of the child reading. Therefore it was with trepidation that I approached the task, armed with.the adult critical tools: suspension of disbelief; ability to recognise didactic and moral intent; a partially formed paradigm of literary theory; a vast body of knowledge about narrative structures, historical norms and biographies. An arsenal. The outcome was mixed. True, the reflection showed flaws, at times yawning gaps, but I found to my delight and perhaps to the discomfiture of my adult critic, that my child feelings and recollections survived. If necessary, they can subvert the grown-up response of critical angst and threat of disillusionment.  

This article discusses Little Women, The Coral Island, and The Secret Garden. 

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References

Alcott, Louisa May 1987, Little Women, William Collins, London.

Avery, Gillian 1965, Nineteenth Century Children, Hodder & Stoughton, London.

Ballantyne, Roger 1956, The Coral Island, Dean & Son, London.

Bratton, J.S. 1981, The Impact of Children's Fiction, Croom Helm, Sydney.

Burnett, Frances Hodgson 1951, The Secret Garden, Puffin, Harmondsworth.

Butler, Franceli and Rotert, Richard 1984, Reflections on Literature for Children, Shoestring Press, Connecticut.

Carpenter, Humphrey 1985, Secret Gardens, Unwin, Sydney.

Cheney, Ednah ed. 1889, Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters and Journals, Little Brown, Boston.

Darton, F.J. Harvey 1958, Children's Books in England, Cambridge University Press, London.

Keyser, Elizabeth Lennox 1985, 'Domesticity versus Identity: A Review Alcott Research', Children's Literature in Education vol. 18 no. 3.

Knoepfelmacher, U.C. 1983, 'Little Girls Without Their Curls', Children's Literature in Education vol. 11.

Leverstik, Linda A. 1983, 'I Am No Lady: the Tomboy in Children's Fiction', Children's Literature in Education vol. 14 no. 1.

Lurie, Alison 1990, Don't Tell the Grown-ups, Bloomsbury, London.

May, Jill 1980, 'Spirited Females in the Nineteenth Century: Liberated Moods in Little Women', Children's Literature in Education, vol.11 no. 1.

McDowell, Myles 1973, 'Fiction for Children and Adults Some Essential Differences', Children's Literature in Education, March.

Paul, Lissa 1987, 'Enigma Variations: What Feminist Theory Knows About Children's Literature', Signal, vol. 54.

Threadgold, Rosemary 1979, 'An Appreciation of Frances Hodgson Burnett as a Novelist for Children', Children's Literature in Education, vol.10 no. 3.

Tucker, Nicholas 1972, 'How Children Respond to Fiction', Children's Literature in Education, November.

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Published

1994-07-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Revisiting Some Icons of the Golden Age” (1994) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 5(2-3), pp. 104–108. doi:10.21153/pecl1994vol5no2-3art1415.

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