| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Description |
xxxvii, 161 p. ; 24 cm. |
| Contents |
Losing and using queer youth -- A boy and his dog -- Knowing, unknowing, and the achievement of young adulthood -- Melancholic development and Revolutionary War fiction for children -- Melancholic sacrifice and the Holocaust in American children's culture -- Coda: physical trauma, childhood embodiment, and children's literature. |
| Summary |
Tribunella (English, U. of Southern Mississippi) argues that within 20th century American literature for youth a strikingly recurrent theme involves the child-protagonist's irrevocable loss of a loved object (a friend, a dog named Old Yeller, an ideal, etc.) and subsequent maturation through the traumatic experience of love and loss. He addresses the cultural significance of this theme, applying insights from queer theory concerning normativity and normative development, as well as culturally sanctioned and prescribed subjectivities, particularly of gender and sexuality. He also employs concepts from trauma theory (from within the humanities), which offer a framework for understanding trauma as cultural discourse and mechanism for constructing and disciplining social subjects. |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [147]-154) and index. |
| Subject |
Maturation (Psychology) in literature.
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Loss (Psychology) in literature.
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Psychic trauma in literature.
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Children's stories, American -- History and criticism.
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Young adult fiction, American -- History and criticism.
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Bildungsromans, American -- History and criticism.
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| ISBN |
9781572336810 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
|
1572336811 |
|
