Little Red Readings: Historical Materialist Perspectives on Children's Literature (Children's Literature Association Series)

A significant body of scholarship examines the production of childrens literature by women and minorities as well as the representation of gender race and sexuality. But few scholars have previously analyzed class in childrens literature. This definitive collection remedies that by defining and exemplifying historical materialist approaches to childrens literature. The introduction of Little Red Readings lucidly discusses characteristics of historical materialism the methodological approach to the study of literature and culture first outlined by Karl Marx defining key concepts and analyzing factors that have marginalized this tradition particularly in the United States. The thirteen essays here analyze a wide range of texts - from childrens bibles to Mary Poppins to The Hunger Games - using concepts in historical materialism from class struggle to the commodity. Essayists apply the work of Marxist theorists such as Ernst Bloch and Fredric Jameson to childrens literature and film. Others examine the work of leftist writers in India Germany England and the United States. The authors argue that historical materialist methodology is critical to the study of childrens literature as children often suffer most from inequality. Some of the critics in this collection reveal the ways that literature for children often functions to naturalize capitalist economic and social relations. Other critics champion literature that reveals to readers the construction of social reality and point to texts that enable an understanding of the role ordinary people might play in creating a more just future. The collection adds substantially to our understanding of the political and class character of childrens literature worldwide and contributes to the development of a radical history of childrens literature.