Children's Literature and New York City [Hardcover]

This collection explores the significance of New York City in childrens literature, stressing literary, political, and societal influences on writing for young people from the twentieth century to the present day. Contextualized in light of contemporary critical and cultural theory, the chapters examine the varying ways in which childrens literature has engaged with New York City as a city space, both in terms of (urban) realism and as an idea, such as the fantasy of the city as a place of opportunity, or other associations. The collection visits not only dominant themes, motifs, and tropes, but also the different narrative methods employed to tell readers about the history, function, physical structure, and conceptualization of New York City, acknowledging the shared or symbiotic relationship between literature and the city: just as literature can give imaginative reality to the city, the city has the potential to shape the literary text. This book critically engages with most of the major forms and genres for children/young adults that dialogue with New York City, and considers such authors as Margaret Wise Brown, Felice Holman, E. L. Konigsburg, Maurice Sendak, J. D. Salinger, John Donovan, Shaun Tan, Elizabeth Enright, and Patti Smith.

 

Introduction  P?draic Whyte and Keith OSullivan  1. Bank Street and Beyond: New York City in the Here and Now Books of Lucy Sprague Mitchell and Margaret Wise Brown  Joseph Stanton  2. Form Follows Function: Elizabeth Enrights Melendy Quartet (19411951)  Julie Anne Stevens  3. Striated Space and Smooth Space: A Deleuzoguttarian Reading of Nick McDonells Twelve  Keith OSullivan  4. Navigating Adolescence through the Streets of New York: Ill Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip  PlC