Velveteen Rabbit at 100

Contributions by Kelly Blewett Claudia Camicia Alisa Clapp-Itnyre Lisa Rowe Fraustino Elisabeth Graves Karlie Herndon KaaVonia Hinton Holly Blackford Humes Melanie Hurley Kara K. Keeling Maleeha Malik Claudia Mills Elena Paruolo Scott T. Pollard Jiwon Rim Paige Sammartino Adrianna Zabrzewska and Wenduo Zhang <p/> First published in 1922 to immediate popularity <i>The Velveteen Rabbit</i> by Margery Williams has never been out of print. The story has been adapted for film television and theater across a range of mediums including animation claymation live action musical and dance. Frequently the story inspires a sentimental nostalgic response--as well as a corresponding dismissive response from critics. It is surprising that despite its longevity and popularity <i>The Velveteen Rabbit</i> has inspired a relatively thin dossier of serious literary scholarship a gap that this volume seeks to correct. <p/> While each essay can stand alone the chapters in <i>The Velveteen Rabbit at 100 </i>flow in a coherent sequence from beginning to end showing connections between readings from a wide array of critical approaches. Philosophical and cultural studies lead us to consider the meaning of love and reality in ways both timeless and temporal. The Velveteen Rabbit is an Anthropocene Rabbit. He is also disabled. Here a traditional exegetical reading sits alongside queering the text. Collectively these essays more than double the amount of serious scholarship on <i>The Velveteen Rabbit</i>. Combining hindsight with evolving sensibilities about representation the contributors offer thirteen ways of looking at this Rabbit that Margery Williams gave us--ways that we can also use to look at other classic storybooks.