Dangerous children on seven novels and a story
Gross, Kenneth
Dangerous children on seven novels and a story Kenneth Gross - 204 Seiten 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index
Alice -- Pinocchio -- Maisie -- Peter -- Odradek -- Emily -- Portia -- Lolita.
"Ranging from Victorian to modern examples-Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Henry James's What Maisie Knew, J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy, Franz Kafka's "The Cares of a Family Man," Richard Hughes's A High Wind in Jamaica, Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart, and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita-Kenneth Gross's book explores stories that center around the figure of a strange and dangerous child. Whether written for adults or child readers, or both at once, these stories all show us odd, even frightening visions of innocence. We see these children's uncanny powers of speech, knowledge, and play, as well as their nonsense and violence. And, in the tales, these child-lives keep changing shape. These are children who are often endangered as much as dangerous, haunted as well as haunting. In looking at these narratives, Gross traces the reader's thrill of companionship with these unpredictable, often solitary creatures-children curious about the adult world, who while not accommodating its rules, fall into ever more troubling conversations with adult fears and desires. This book asks how such imaginary children, often depicted as objects of wonder, challenge our ways of seeing the world, our measures of innocence and experience, and our understanding of time and memory"--
9780226819778 cloth
2022009996
Children in literature
Children and adults in literature
Literary criticism
Fellow Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow Class of Spring 2008
PN56.5.C48
809.3/93523
Dangerous children on seven novels and a story Kenneth Gross - 204 Seiten 23 cm
Includes bibliographical references and index
Alice -- Pinocchio -- Maisie -- Peter -- Odradek -- Emily -- Portia -- Lolita.
"Ranging from Victorian to modern examples-Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Henry James's What Maisie Knew, J. M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy, Franz Kafka's "The Cares of a Family Man," Richard Hughes's A High Wind in Jamaica, Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart, and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita-Kenneth Gross's book explores stories that center around the figure of a strange and dangerous child. Whether written for adults or child readers, or both at once, these stories all show us odd, even frightening visions of innocence. We see these children's uncanny powers of speech, knowledge, and play, as well as their nonsense and violence. And, in the tales, these child-lives keep changing shape. These are children who are often endangered as much as dangerous, haunted as well as haunting. In looking at these narratives, Gross traces the reader's thrill of companionship with these unpredictable, often solitary creatures-children curious about the adult world, who while not accommodating its rules, fall into ever more troubling conversations with adult fears and desires. This book asks how such imaginary children, often depicted as objects of wonder, challenge our ways of seeing the world, our measures of innocence and experience, and our understanding of time and memory"--
9780226819778 cloth
2022009996
Children in literature
Children and adults in literature
Literary criticism
Fellow Ellen Maria Gorrissen Fellow Class of Spring 2008
PN56.5.C48
809.3/93523