Under fire : childhood in the shadow of war
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Under fire : childhood in the shadow of war
（Landscapes of childhood）
Wayne State University Press, c2008
- : pbk
Available at 3 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-275) and index
Contents of Works
- Introduction / Elizabeth Goodenough and Andrea Immel
- Storying war : an overview / Mitzi Myers
- Massacre of the innocents? : sacral violence and the paradox of the children's crusade / Gary Dickson
- "Surely there is no British boy or girl who has not heard of the battle of Waterloo!" : war and children's literature in the age of Napoleon / M.O. Grenby
- Under ideological fire : illustrated wartime propaganda for children / Eric J. Johnson
- Shifting images : Germans in postwar British children's fiction / Emer O'Sullivan
- Baby terrors / Lore Segal
- "No safe place to run to" : an interview with Robert Cormier / Mitzi Myers
- Picturing trauma in the Great War / Margaret R. Higonnet
- The shadow of war : Tolkien, trauma, childhood, fantasy / Mark Heberle
- A is for Auschwitz : psychoanalysis, trauma theory, and the "children's literature of atrocity" / Kenneth Kidd
- The Hansel and Gretel syndrome : survivorship fantasies and parental desertion / U.C. Knoepflmacher
- Gila Almagor's Aviyah : remembering the Holocaust in children's literature / Naomi Sokoloff
- The anxiety of trauma in children's war fiction / Adrienne Kertzer
- A physician's take on Ferdinand / John Gall
- Breaking the cycle / Mark Jonathan Harris
- Please don't touch my toys : material culture and the academy / Mitzi Myers
- "Appointed journeys" : growing up with war stories / Maria Tatar
- Afterword / Pamela Reynolds
- "Things by their right names" / John Aikin and Anna Letitia Barbauld
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Under Fire is an eclectic, multidisciplinary collection that explores the representation of war and its aftereffects in children's books and documentary film. This richly illustrated volume brings together internationally known contributors to examine the ongoing influence of violence and war on children's literature by studying the childhood experiences of authors writing for children, the children represented in war stories, and the experiences of children who make up the stories' readership. Under Fire opens timely avenues in literary studies and encourages those who work with young readers to envision children's studies in new ways.
The first three sections explore war's effect on children from the Children's Crusade through World War II, with a special emphasis on the Holocaust. Contributors in these sections pay close attention to the effects of war on the collective memory and consciousness of both children and authors, investigating how these experiences serve as fodder for fantasy and as a justification for the abundance of realism in children's books. The final section studies in detail children's books and stories from the world-renowned Cotsen Collection at Princeton University, including C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series and J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Dedicated to the memory of Mitzi Myers, Under Fire concludes with a personal essay by Myers, who considers the unexpected and long-reaching effects of children's literature on her own life.
Under Fire helps readers to understand why matters of life and death have always been at the heart of enduring works for children. Children's studies scholars and students and teachers of children's literature will appreciate this multifaceted and intriguing volume.
by "Nielsen BookData"