Introducing Children's Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism

Introducing Children’s Literature is an ideal guide to reading children’s literature through the perspective of literary history. Focusing on the literary movements from Romanticism to Postmodernism, Thacker and Webb examine the concerns of each period and the ways in which these concerns influence and are influenced by the children’s literature of the time. Each section begins with a general chapter, which explains the relationship between the major concerns of each literary period and the formal and thematic qualities of children’s texts. Close readings of selected texts follow to demonstrate the key defining characteristics of the form of writing and the literary movements. This is the first text to set children’s literature within a relationship to writing for adults and is essential reading for students studying writing for children. Books discussed include: Little Women, The Water-Babies, Alice in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Secret Garden, Mary Poppins, Charlotte’s Web and Clockwork.