Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature oxford university press, 2009 winner of the 2009 childrens literature association book award featured as a times higher education book of the week, 682009 excerpted in the norton critical edition of alice in wonderland 3rd ed. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature 9780199756742. Through a combination of close attention to the historical evidence and a steadfast refusal to simplify the data, gubar offers a compelling argument that latenineteenthcentury childrens fiction is both more sophisticated and more various than has been widely assumed. Artful dodgers paperback marah gubar oxford university. M arah gubar is an associate professor of literature at mit. Marah gubar in this contribution to victorian and childrens literature studies, marah gubar proposes a fundamental reconception of the nineteenthcentury attitude toward childhood. Artful dodgers reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature marah gubar. In this groundbreaking contribution to victorian and childrens literature studies, marah gubar proposes a fundamental reconception of the. Collaboration is of course far more equivocal than colonization, but therein lies much of its force as an analytic frame for this literature.
Sep 26, 2015 gubars most obvious key term, artful dodgers, is doing some important work both in setting up her stance with regard to jacqueline roses argument in the case of peter pan, and in justifying the necessity of analyzing works for both adults and children. While cultists such as carroll, burnett, and barrie were. In this groundbreaking contribution to victorian and childrens literature studies, marah gubar proposes a fundamental reconception of the nineteenthcentury attitude toward childhood. It deserves wide attention among scholars of both victorian and childrens literature, not only for the range and acuity of its readings, but also for its. Gubar comes to mit from the department of english at the university of pittsburgh, where she was director of childrens literature.
In this groundbreaking contribution to victorian and childhood studies, marah gubar proposes a fundamental reconception of the nineteenthcentury attitude toward the child. Previously, she directed the childrens literature program at the university of pittsburgh. Artful dodgers is a strong first salvo in the corrective effort that gubar calls for, an exploration of the ways in which these authors more often than not posited fictive situations that examined. The phenomenon of the cult of the child reflects this larger cultural ambivalence. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. The artful dodgers by meany, tom and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at. In her preface to artful dodgers, marah gubar concedes that her argument concerning the cult of the child is currently incomplete, and that a fuller understanding would necessitate an expansion of her body of primary sources to include amongst others literary texts aimed at adults x. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature paperback at.
The artful dodger who figures on the cover of marah gubars book in a trompeloeil painting by pere borrell del caso is slipping slyly out of the frame, like a small and ragged thief who slips out the door of a bourgeois victorian home. James eli adams, new books online artful dodgers is an engaging and provocative analysis of the twentiethcentury critical construction of victorian childhood. That work, published in 2009 by oxford university press, examined victorian childrens literature beyond its most famous stories, such as lewis carrolls adventures in alice in wonderland. This important and authoritative book requires readers to confront their own prejudices. Everyone working in the interlinked fields of childrens literature and childhood studies should read this beautifully written, meticulously researched, and methodologically innovative book. First, i contend that the middleclass ideology of childhood innocence and dependency was much slower to spread than literary critics and historians generally assume. Sep 25, 20 childrens literature association book award, 2009 awarded for artful dodgers. Artful dodgers is an engaging and provocative analysis of the twentiethcentury critical construction of victorian childhood. In this groundbreaking contribution to victorian and childrens liter. Read the fulltext online edition of artful dodgers. Jul 26, 2016 that paper became the germ of my whole dissertation and artful dodgers, gubar adds, referencing her first book. We are a flexible and welcoming studio space where young people aged 1527 experiencing difficult life circumstances and who face barriers to arts.
This chapter argues that critics have overestimated the extent of the victorians investment in the ideology of innocence. Such nuanced meditations on the vexed issue of the childs agency, gubar suggests, can help contemporary scholars to generate more flexible critical approaches to the study of childhood and childrens literature. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature, marah gubar powerfully reconsiders both the cult of the child and roses critique of it. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature came out from oxford university press in 2009 and won the childrens literature associations book award. This book proposes a fundamental reconception of the 19thcentury attitude toward the child. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature oxford university press, 2009. A wellresearched and wellargued monograph contributing significantl. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature came out from oxford university press in 2009 and won the childrens literature. Offers a new interpretation of the often mentioned but rarely discussed cult of the child, one which for the first time takes into account the victorians own richly selfaware discourse on this topic and uses it to depart from the trendy notion that the victorians eroticized innocence an idea popularized. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature. But golden age childrens literature, gubar argues, more often represents a manyfaceted collaboration between children and adultsa concept that motivates her appropriation of dickenss phrase, artful dodger. My book artful dodgers 2009 made two historical interventions that i have continued to elaborate in more recent work. Artful dodgers looks at the works of lewis carroll, frances hodgson burnett, and j.
Jun 11, 2009 this critique of the form and content of 19thcentury british childrens fiction and by extension of victorian culture meets with a refreshing challenge in marah gubars artful dodgers. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature, by marah gubar. The romantic ideology of innocence spread more slowly than we think, it contends, and the people whom we assume were most committed to itchildrens authors and members of the infamous cult of the childwere actually deeply ambivalent. The show followed the artful dodgers adventures in the australian penal colony in new south wales, as well as his eventual redemption. The artful dodger, byname of jack dawkins, fictional character in charles dickenss novel oliver twist 183739. Barrie authors traditionally criticized for arresting the child in a position of iconic innocence and contends that they in fact rejected this simplistic child of nature paradigm in favor of one based on the child as an artful collaborator. Gubars book is pioneering in demonstrating that victorian adult writers depicted children. Through a combination of close attention to the historical evidence and a steadfast refusal to simplify the data, gubar offers a compelling argument that latenineteenthcentury childrens fiction is both more. In 2001, the artful dodger was the subject of an australian childrens show called escape of the artful dodger. Marah gubar, associate professor of literature at massachusetts institute of technology and author of artful dodgers. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature 2009 won the childrens literature association book award. The otherness of children was not an accepted fact in the 19th century, but the subject of a long, drawnout fight. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature 2009.
Marah gubar proposes a fundamental reconception of the nineteenthcentury. Cutt of the child and the controversy over child actors. Jun 25, 2009 artful dodgers looks at the works of lewis carroll, frances hodgson burnett, and j. Golden age childrens authors, she contends, were generally skeptical about images of childhood associated with romantic primitivism, and they rarely present children as incarnations. The artful dodger is a precocious streetwise boy who introduces the protagonist oliver to the thief fagin and his gang of children, who work as thieves and pickpockets. Marah gubar proposes a fundamental reconception of the nineteenthcentury attitude toward childhood. Literature welcomes marah gubar m arah gubar will join the literature faculty as an associate professor with tenure, beginning july 1, 2014. Reconceiving the golden age of childrens literature by marah gubar isbn. Artful dodgers introduces a new category in which to place the child of victorian childrens literature. The ideology of innocence was much slower to spread than we think, she contends, and the people whom we assume were most committed to itchildrens authors and members of the infamous cult of the childwere.