ABSTRACT
Rulers of Literary Playgrounds: Politics of Intergenerational Play in Children’s Literature offers multifaceted reflection on interdependences between children and adults as they engage in play in literary texts and in real life. This volume brings together international children’s literature scholars who each look at children’s texts as key vehicles of intergenerational play reflecting ideologies of childhood and as objects with which children and adults interact physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Each chapter applies a distinct theoretical approach to selected children’s texts, including individual and social play, constructive play, or play deprivation. This collection of essays constitutes a timely voice in the current discussion about the importance of children’s play and adults’ contribution to it vis-à-vis the increasing limitations of opportunities for children’s playful time in contemporary societies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|94 pages
Social and Political Contexts of Play
chapter 2|16 pages
How Delightful Is a Child at Play? Play in Children’s Literature in Flanders during the Nineteenth Century
chapter 3|19 pages
“When you have said your les-sons well, then you shall go out to play”
chapter 5|14 pages
Requiem for a Rabbit Scut
part 2|72 pages
Constructs of Children’s Agency in Representations of Childhood and Play
chapter 7|17 pages
Branching out from the Family Tree
chapter 8|13 pages
Language Play in Adult-Child Relationships
part 3|43 pages
Materialities of Play
chapter 11|12 pages
Encounters with Metafiction
chapter 13|15 pages
Crossing Boundaries in Children’s Books
part |14 pages
Coda