Part of
Landscapes of Realism: Rethinking literary realism in comparative perspectivesEdited by Svend Erik Larsen, Steen Bille Jørgensen and Margaret R. Higonnet
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIII] 2022
► pp. 629–648
Edited by Svend Erik Larsen, Steen Bille Jørgensen and Margaret R. Higonnet
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIII] 2022
► pp. 629–648
Forms of realism in children’s literature
Realism in children’s literature has been confused with didacticism, suppressed by censorship, and understudied in the nineteenth century, when crossover reading blurred the line between children and adults. Yet the roots of realism lie in earlier encyclopedic and even alphabetic forms, which modeled and foreshadowed nineteenth-century experiments in historical fiction, science fiction, and three-dimensional ‘movable’ forms that in turn supported enthusiasm for ‘illusions in motion’ and early film. Underestimating the capacity of a child-audience to appreciate sophisticated forms of representation and metanarrative, critics have focused on descriptive conceptions of mimesis in texts for the young, at the expense of self-conscious practices of verisimilitude and the comic – another dimension of realism central to the child-reader’s play with texts that has been underestimated by theorists of realism. Examples that range from nursery play to serious adolescent fiction (e.g. adventure, historical narratives, domestic fiction) expand our understanding both of children’s readings and of the potential range of realism.
Keywords: censorship, audiences, education, Johann Comenius, G. Bruno, Lothar Meggendorfer, Catharine Sedgwick, Mildred Taylor, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, realism
Article outline
- 1.Problems of definition
- 2.Encyclopedic or alphabetic realism
- 3.Playful realism and illusions through motion
- 4.Periodical: Mixed audiences and disciplines
- 5.Historical fiction
- 6.Problem fiction
- 7.Conclusion
-
Works cited
References
Works cited
Aristotle
2001 Poetics [c. 335 B.C.E], translated by Ingram Bywater. In The Basic Works of Aristotle, edited by Richard McKeon, 1453–87. New York: The Modern Library.
Armbröster-Groh, Elvira
1997 Der moderne realistische Kinderroman. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.
Auerbach, Erich
1953 Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature [1946], translated by Willard Trask. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Barthes, Roland
1974 S/Z [1970], translated by Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang.
1986 “The Reality Effect” [1968] In The Rustle of Language, translated by Richard Howard, 141–48. New York: Hill & Wang.
Benjamin, Walter
1996 “A Glimpse Into the World of Children’s Books.” In Selected Writings, vol. 1 (1913–26), edited by Michael W. Jennings and translated by Edmund Jephcott, 435–43. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
1999 “On the Mimetic Faculty.” In Selected Writings, vol. 2 (1927–34), edited by Michael W. Jennings and translated by Edmund Jephcott, 720–22. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bergson, Henri
1911 Laughter: an Essay on the Meaning of the Comic [1900], translated by Cloudesley Brereton and Fred Rothwell. New York: Macmillan. 
Brès, Jean-Pierre
1831 Le livre jou-jou. Paris: Janet.
Brown, Penny
2008 A Critical History of French Children’s Literature, vol. 2: 1830-Present New York: Routledge.
Bruno, G.
(pseud. of Augustine Tuillerie Fouillée) 1887 Le Tour de la France par deux enfants [1878] Paris: Belin.
Comenius, Johann Amos
1967 Orbis sensualium pictus, facsimile of the third London Edition 1672 [1659] (English and Latin), translated by Charles Hoole. Sydney: Sydney University Press.
Corelli, Marc
1917 Mémoires du général Joffre en plomb, illustrated by H. Gray. Paris: Ramel.
Crain, Patricia
2000 The Story of A: The Alphabetization of America from The New England Primer to The Scarlet Letter. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Culler, Jonathan D.
1975 Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism, Linguistics, and the Study of Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Dickens, Charles
1850 “A Preliminary Word.” Household Words 1.1: 1.
2001 Hard Times [1854] New York: Norton.
Grenby, Matthew O.
2008 Children’s Literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hardy, Thomas
1967 “Candour in English Fiction” [1890] In Thomas Hardy’s Personal Writings: Prefaces, Literary Opinions, Reminiscences, edited by Harold Orel. 125–33. London: Macmillan.
Hetzel, Pierre Jules [pseud. P. J. Stahl
] ed. 1867 Vie Privée et Publique des Animaux, illustrated by Grandville [1839–1840] Paris: Hetzel.
Hetzel, Pierre Jules
ed. 1877 Public and Private Life of Animals, translated and adapted by J. Thomson. London: S. Low et al.
Higonnet, Margaret R.
2014 “Movable Books: Transnational Publication and Cultural Translations.” In Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung international: Ansichten und Aussichten, edited by Gabriele von Glasenapp, Ute Dettmar and Bernd Dolle-Weinkauff, 415–27. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.
Huhtamo, Erkki
2013 Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles. Cambridge: MIT University Press.
Hunt, Peter
1994 An Introduction to Children's Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
James, Henry
1987 “The Future of the Novel” [1899] In The Critical Muse: Selected Literary Criticism, edited by Roger Gard, 335–45. London: Penguin.
Jameson, Fredric
2013 The Antinomies of Realism. London: Verso.
Kaminsky, Winfred
1987 Einführung in die Kinder- und Jugendliteratur: Literarische Phantasie und gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeit. Weinheim: Juwenta.
Le Men, Ségolène
1984 Les abécédaires français illustrés du XIXe siècle. Paris: Promodis.
Locke, John
1824 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [1690] In The Works of John Locke in Nine Volumes, vol. 1. London: Rivington.
Malot, Hector
1862 Les Amants [1859] Paris: Michel-Lévy.
1887 Sans Famille [1878] Paris: E. Dentu.
1893 En Famille. Paris: Flammarion.
1896 Le Roman de mes romans. Paris: Flammarion.
1916 Nobody’s Boy, translated by Florence Crewe-Jones. New York: Cupples and Leon.
1922 Nobody’s Girl, translated by Florence Crewe-Jones. New York: Cupples and Leon.
Mark Twain (pseud. of Samuel Clemens
) 1999 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [1884] New York: Norton.
Maruki, Toshi
1980 Hiroshima No Pika. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
Meggendorfer, Lothar
1890a Lustiges Automaten–Theater. Ein Ziehbilderbuch. Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber.
1890b Lebende Thierbilder. Ein Ziehbilderbuch. Munich: Braun und Schneider.
1890c “The Tailor.” In Comic Actors: A New Movable Toybook, n.pag. London: H. Grevel & Co.
1894 All Alive: A movable Toybook. London: H. Grevel & Co.
1896 Nur für brave Kinder. Ein Verwandlungs-Bilderbuch. Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber
1982 Surprise! Surprise! – A reproduction of an antique book of magical moving pictures. New York: Viking.
Mercier, Cathryn
2011 “Realism.” In Keywords for Children’s Literature, edited by Philip Nel and Lissa Paul, 198–201. New York University.
Nelson, Marilyn
2001 Carver, a Life in Poems. Asheville: Front Street.
Nikolajeva, Maria
2005 Aesthetic Approaches to Children’s Literature: An Introduction. Lanham: Scarecrow.
Nister, Ernest
1894 Pleasant Surprises for Chicks of all Sizes [1893] London: Dutton.
Opie, Iona and Peter Opie
eds. 1980 A Nursery Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sedgwick, Catharine
1987 Hope Leslie: Or, Early Times in the Massachusetts [1827], edited by Mary Kelley. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.
Taylor, Mildred
1976 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York: Dial.
Thiel, Bernd-Jürgen
1979 Die realistische Kindergeschichte in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Frankfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.
Verne, Jules
1990 Vingt mille lieues sous les mers: Tour du monde sous-marin [1869–1871] Paris: Livre de Poche.
1993 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, translated by Frederick Paul Walter. Albany: State University of New York.