Out of this world : why literature matters to girls / Holly Virginia Blackford ; foreword by Carol Christ.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blackford, Holly Virginia.

Series:

Language and literacy series (New York, N.Y.)

Language and literacy series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Girls--Books and reading--United States.

Girls.

Girls--Books and reading.

Reader-response criticism.

United States.

Girls--United States--Interviews.

Reader-response criticism--United States.

Genre:

Interviews.

Physical Description:

xiv, 178 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Teachers College Press, [2004]

Summary:

This truly breakthrough book takes the very process of reading and shakes it to its core. Opening new territory. Holly Blackford deftly challenges contemporary literary theory and identity politics regarding adolescent girls and their reading experiences. Having discovered how girls aged 8 to 16 actually construct meaning from texts, the author considers how these new findings impact English education.

Contents:

Introduction: Literature: Vive la Difference 1

Why Study Children? 2

Why Study Girls? 4

So, Why Does Literature Matter? 5

What Was Wrong with My Research Questions? 7

The Chapters 9

Where Are Their Human Role Models? 11

Why Are Female Characters of Fiction Not Role Models? 12

1 Seeing and Imagining the Text 16

How Critics Believe That Ideas Influence People 17

The Relationship between Literature and Life 18

Floating above the Story 19

The Importance of the Narrator 21

Reading with Multiple Selves 23

Seeing and Imagining at the Same Time 24

Written Text as Cinematic in the Mind 25

Shifting Points of View 27

2 Going "Off-World" for Insight 30

Grasping Theme 30

Seeing and Transcendence: The American View 33

Transcendence of Artistic Lines 35

A Separate Moral Vision 36

Voyages Off-World: Healthy? 39

3 "It's Like a Fantasy World": Gender and Form 42

Genre as Focalizer, Adventure Quest as Freedom 44

Why Girls Appreciate Harry Potter and Secondary Worlds of Fantasy 47

Appreciating Fantasy beyond Hero 51

The Multiple Climaxes and Quests of Fantasy 52

The History of Gender and Form in the American Romance and Novel 54

British Fantasy for Children versus American Romance 55

Gender and Form in Nineteenth-Century America 57

Gender and Genre Continue in American Bookstores and Blockbusters 59

An Example of Utopian Vision 60

4 The Genre of Identity: Suspense, Action, Quest, and Gothic Form 63

Suspense 64

"The Whole World-Ending Thing" 68

"The Horror, the Horror!": Gothic Mystery 71

Form over Victim, Mind over Matter 71

Getting Good at Form 74

Serialization: Mystery Saga That Never Ends 75

Gothic Landscape 77

How the Gothic Doubles 79

Gothicizing the Female 82

5 Cherchez la Femme: The Problem of Verisimilitude 85

Alienation from Female Characters in Written Fiction 86

How the Gender of Fantasy Becomes Bound to Their Appreciation of Literature 89

American Girls and the Freedom to Fly 91

Constructing Female Stories as Fantasies 92

Structuring Texts Perceived as Verisimilar 96

Structuring Psychology 98

Structuring Emotion 100

6 Film and "Reelism" 102

Empowerment of Female Characters 103

The Role Film Plays in Social Life 107

Attending to Actresses 109

Growing Up With Film 111

The Paradox of Film, More Novel Than Literature 113

7 Beauty in the Beast: The Power of Metamorphosis 116

Acting in Play: A Different Transcendence of Self 116

The Appeal of Species Metamorphosis 119

Embodying the Animal Narrative 121

The Braid of Animal Literature and Imaginative Life 123

Our Bodies, Our Animals 128

Transcendence of Human Form 131

Coda: Tapping Girls' Responses to Reading 133

Comparing Form across Genres 135

Exploring Narrative Strategies 137

Investigating Points of View 139

Conclusion: Encouraging the Aesthetic Stance 140

Appendix Interviews as Texts: A Methodological Discussion 141.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-168) and index.

ISBN:

0807744670

0807744662

OCLC:

53975525