Mothers in Children's and Young Adult Literature: From the Eighteenth Century to Postfeminism - Paperback

by Lisa Rowe Fraustino (Editor), Karen Coats (Editor)

Contributions by:

Robin Calland, Lauren Causey, Karen Coats, Sara K. Day, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, Anna Katrina Gutierrez, Adrienne Kertzer, Kouen Kim, Alexandra Kotanko, Jennifer Mitchell, Mary Jeanette Moran, Julie Pfeiffer, and Donelle Ruwe

Living or dead, present or absent, sadly dysfunctional or merrily adequate, the figure of the mother bears enormous freight across a child's emotional and intellectual life. Given the vital role literary mothers play in books for young readers, it is remarkable how little scholarly attention has been paid to the representation of mothers outside of fairy tales and beyond studies of gender stereotypes. This collection of thirteen essays begins to fill a critical gap by bringing together a range of theoretical perspectives by a rich mix of senior scholars and new voices.

The range of critical approaches in this volume will provide multiple inroads for scholars to investigate richer readings of mothers in children's and young adult literature.

Author Biography

Lisa Rowe Fraustino edits the journal Children's Literature and directs the graduate programs in children's literature at Hollins University. Karen Coats is professor of English at Illinois State University. She is author of The Bloomsbury Introduction to Children's and Young Adult Literature; Looking Glass and Neverlands: Lacan, Desire, and Subjectivity in Children's Literature; and Children's Literature and the Developing Reader and coeditor of Handbook of Research on Children's and Young Adult Literature and The Gothic in Children's Literature: Haunting the Borders.