Jews and Jewishness in British Children}}}s Literature [Hardcover]

In a period of ongoing debate about faith, identity, migration and culture, this timely study explores the often politicised nature of constructions of one of Britains longest standing minority communities. Representations in childrens literature influenced by the impact of the Enlightenment, the Empire, the Holocaust and 9/11 reveal an ongoing concern with establishing, maintaining or problematising the boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. Chapters on gender, refugees, multiculturalism and historical fiction argue that literature for young people demonstrates that the position of Jews in Britain has been ambivalent, and that this ambivalence has persisted to a surprising degree in view of the dramatic socio-cultural changes that have taken place over two centuries.

Wide-ranging in scope and interdisciplinary in approach, Jews and Jewishness in British Childrens Literaturediscusses over one hundred texts ranging from picture books to young adult fiction and realism to fantasy. Madelyn Travis examines rare eighteenth- and nineteenth-century material plus works by authors including Maria Edgeworth, E. Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, Richmal Crompton, Lynne Reid Banks, Michael Rosen and others. The study also draws on Traviss previously unpublished interviews with authors including Adele Geras, Eva Ibbotson, Ann Jungman and Judith Kerr.

Introduction 1. Moneylenders and Misers: the Eighteenth Century to the Second World War 2. Conversion to Englishness: Refugees and Belonging 3. The Hyphen Problem: British-Jewish Identity 4. Mother, Monster, Mensch: Jews and Gender 5. Good Jews or Bad Jews?: The Jewish Question Revisited Conclusion

'An original and significant addition to understanding of the interaction of British culture with the Jews and Jews. ' - Professor David Feldman, author of Englishmen and Jews: Social Relations and Political Culture1840-1914