Overview
- Moves beyond extreme representations of child malevolence, to examine a wider cross-section of texts encompassing sibling rivalry, bullying, and manipulation
- Presents the cruel child not simply as an adult fear, but also as an important figure in child education and culture
- Has relevance for Education, Queer Studies, Women’s Studies, Cultural Studies, and Media Studies
Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature (CRACL)
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About this book
This book explores how alarmist social discourses about 'cruel' young people fail to recognize the complexity of cruelty and the role it plays in child agency. Examining representations of cruel young people in popular texts and popular culture, the collected essays demonstrate how gender, race, and class influence who gets labeled 'cruel' and which actions are viewed as negative, aggressive, and disruptive. It shows how representations of cruel young people negotiate the violence that shadows polite society, and how narratives of cruelty and aggression are used to affirm, or to deny, young people’s agency.
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Keywords
Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Early Exemplars of the Cruel Child
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Front Matter
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Child Killers and Child Victims
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Front Matter
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Cruelty and Child Agency
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Monica Flegel is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lakehead University, Canada. Her research focuses on cultural studies, specifically addressing children, animals, and pop culture and fandom. She is the author of Pets and Domesticity in Victorian Literature and Culture (2015).
Christopher Parkes is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lakehead University, Canada. His research focuses on children’s literature. He is the author of Children’s Literature and Capitalism: Fictions of Social Mobility in Britain, 1850-1914 (Palgrave, 2012). His current research focuses on YA fiction and the end of social mobility in America.
Christopher Parkes is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Lakehead University, Canada. His research focuses on children’s literature. He is the author of Children’s Literature and Capitalism: Fictions of Social Mobility in Britain, 1850-1914 (Palgrave, 2012). His current research focuses on YA fiction and the end of social mobility in America.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Cruel Children in Popular Texts and Cultures
Editors: Monica Flegel, Christopher Parkes
Series Title: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72275-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-72274-0Published: 30 April 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-10179-4Published: 25 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-72275-7Published: 19 April 2018
Series ISSN: 2753-0825
Series E-ISSN: 2753-0833
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 312
Number of Illustrations: 7 b/w illustrations
Topics: Children's Literature, Twentieth-Century Literature, North American Literature