Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This volume compliments The Gothic in Children s Literature (2007), which addressed a gap in the critical literature between adult Gothic narrative and children s and young adult literature in the Gothic tradition, discussing the early intersection of the genres and the contemporary manifestations of the gothic impulse. The dramatic uptake of the Gothic in children s publishing since then necessitates revisiting and updating those intersections, and this new collection offers an analysis of the forms and function of the Gothic in children s literature in the new millennium. Essays by key figures in the field explore the new face of the Gothic, considering in particular how and why this new Gothic has achieved such a strong presence in youth literature. The first decade of the 21st century has seen a publishing storm of vampire fiction and other paranormal fantasies bringing into the contemporary imagination new versions of fairies (or faeries), angels, demons, werewolves, zombies, ghosts and witches. These reimagined denizens of darkness have changed the look of youth literature, finding their way into literature for younger and younger children and quite literally dominating young adult literature. The volumes discusses how the Gothic characters of contemporary youth literature, rather than villains who violate the innocent, are as often as not misunderstood heroes, lost souls looking for redemption, even harbingers of a more expansive definition of what it means to be human. It asks how this type of literature helps readers contextualize and understand their psychological and social environments during periods of individual growth, cultural change, global terror, and economic uncertainty. Mapping the 21st century landscape of the Gothic in youth literature, this book will contribute to the fields of children s literature, gothic studies, and YA fantasy, and the dystopic aspects of contemporary writing.
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Synopsis
Children s literature today is dominated by the Gothic mode, and it is in children s Gothic fictions that we find the implications of cultural change most radically questioned and explored. This collection of essays looks at what is happening in the children s Gothic now when traditional monsters have become the heroes, when new monsters have come into play, when globalisation brings Harry Potter into China and yaoguai into the children s Gothic, and when childhood itself and children s literature as a genre can no longer be thought of as an uncontested space apart from the debates and power struggles of an adult domain. We look in detail at series such as The Mortal Instruments, Twilight, Chaos Walking, The Power of Five, Skulduggery Pleasant, and Cirque du Freak; at novels about witches and novels about changelings; at the Gothic in China, Japan and Oceania; and at authors including Celia Rees, Frances Hardinge, Alan Garner and Laini Taylor amongst many others. At a time when the energies and anxieties of children s novels can barely be contained anymore within the genre of children s literature, spilling over into YA and adult literature, we need to pay attention. Weird things are happening and they matter.
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Synopsis
This book compliments The Gothic in Children's Literature (2007), which addressed a gap in the critical literature between adult Gothic narrative and children's and YA literature in the Gothic tradition. The uptake of the Gothic in children's publishing since then necessitates an analysis of the Gothic in children's literature in the new millennium, examining the proliferation of new versions of fairies, angels, demons, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, and witches. The volume asks how this literature helps readers contextualize and understand their psychological and social environments during periods of individual growth, cultural change, global terror, and economic uncertainty.