Overview

New Directions in Childhood Studies: Innocence, Trauma, and Agency in the Twenty-first Century acknowledges that the conceptual frameworks for understanding the experience of childhood in the twentieth century are no longer adequate and offers important updates to the construct of American childhood. The chapters in this collection examine contemporary children’s literature, film, and video games to explore the ways in which everyday realities like trauma, disaster, and death impact the experience of childhood in America today. In many ways, the essays show, the narratives blur traditional lines between children’s and adult content, taking children series as subjects while also guiding them through the processes of dealing with the particular challenges. Collectively, the essays develop a more contemporary construct of the American child and offer new insights into what that construction might mean for contemporary American society and culture.

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9781666940282

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Reviews

Boldly confronting and reconsidering what it means for contemporary children to see themselves in books, the essays in this carefully conceived and well-organized volume take literary criticism of youth literature in new and exciting directions. Each entry draws upon relevant interdisciplinary sources to interrogate how the diverse texts under study push against outdated constructions of childhood, effectively delivering on the promise of the volume's title. Both veteran and emergent scholars will indeed come away with new ways to think about the 'mirrors' of childhood on offer in 21st century books, films, and video games. --Karen Coats, University of Cambridge

Author Information

James M. Curtis is instructor of English at Louisiana State University Shreveport.

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