Suffer the little children : uses of the past in Jewish and African American children's literature / Jodi Eichler-Levine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eichler-Levine, Jodi.

Series:

North American religions.

North American religions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Children's literature, American--History and criticism.

Children's literature, American.

Children's literature, Jewish--History and criticism.

Children's literature, Jewish.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

History in literature.

Suffering in literature.

Jews in literature.

African Americans in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 p.)

Place of Publication:

New York : NYU Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Thiscompelling work examines classic and contemporary Jewish and African Americanchildren’s literature. Through close readings of selected titles publishedsince 1945, Jodi Eichler-Levine analyzes what is at stake in portraying religioushistory for young people, particularly when the histories in question aretraumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the MiddlePassage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children’s literatureprovides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficultcollective pasts.In readingthe work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester,Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, Eichler-Levine changes ourunderstanding of North American religions. She illuminates how narratives ofboth suffering and nostalgia graft future citizens into ideals of Americanliberal democracy, and into religious communities that can be understoodaccording to recognizable notions of reading, domestic respectability, andnational sacrifice. Ifchildren are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to telltales of suffering to children, and can we imagine modes of memory that movepast utopian notions of children as our future? Suffer the Little Childrenasks readers to alter their worldviews about children’s literature as an“innocent” enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettledlight.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A Word about Language

1. Remembering the Way into Membership

Afterlives of Moses and Miriam

2. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus

3. Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia

Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah’s Daughter

4. Bound to Violence

5. Unbound in Fantasy

Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jun 2020)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0-8147-2400-0

OCLC:

838793635