ABSTRACT
HUNT sets out to investigate the relationship between literary criticism and children’s literature. In his opening chapters he defines his field of study by examining the relationship between children’s literature and contemporary aspects of literary theory. He goes on to consider the state of children’s literature and discusses some current definitions. In doing so he acknowledges the problematic area of the interrelatedness of the concept of quality with that of the intended audience for any work of literature, and emphasises a central premise of his argument: that “literature” tends to be writing whose worth is sanctioned by a powerful minority of academics; therefore if literature for children is to receive serious attention it must either be recognised as part of the canon, or the modes of criticism must change. If, as a genre, it is accorded a low status, that in part derives from the views of children and childhood currently held by society at large. Hunt develops these ideas not through detailed analysis of specific texts but through an exploration of how the child-reader makes meaning from the text. Later chapters deal with the child’s concept of narrative, politics and ideology in children’s literature, and aspects of criticism. Hunt’s is also one of the few academic studies to consider institutional aspects of children’s publishing, in a chapter on the production of children’s books.
