In this important and timely study, Murray Knowles and Kristen Malmkjaer examine the work of some of our most popular 19th and 20th century children's writers in order to expose the persuasive power of language in children's literature. At the heart of "Language and" "Control in Children's Literature" lies two surveys of children's favorite readings, the first conducted in 1888, the other a hundred years later by the authors themselves. Using computer analyses of the vocabulary and grammar patterns in the most popular children's texts of each period, the authors examine the ways in which authors use language to inculcate a particular world view in the minds of their readers. This is an invaluable book for anyone concerned with language, literature, children and what they read.
Autorentext
Murray Knowles lectures in Applied English Linguistics at the Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham.
Kirsten Malmkjxr is Assistant Director of Research at the University of Cambridge Research Centre for English and Applied Linguistics. Her previous publications include The LinguisticsEncyclopedia (Routledge, 1991).
Zusammenfassung
This study examines the work of children's writers from the 19th and 20th centuries in order to expose the persuasive power of language. Looking at the work of 19th century English writers of juvenile fiction, Knowles and Malmkjaer expose the colonial and class assumptions on which the books were predicated. In the modern teen novel and the work of Roald Dahl the authors find contemporary attempts to control children within socially established frameworks. Other authors discussed include, Oscar Wilde, E. Nesbit, Lewis Carroll and C.S. Lewis.
Inhalt
Chapter 1 Children's literature in England; Chapter 2 Literature as a carrier of ideology: children's literature and control; Chapter 3 Traditional juvenile fiction; Chapter 4 Today's young reader; Chapter 5 The fairytale; Chapter 6 Fantasy fiction; Chapter 7 Last thoughts;