| Boys in Children's Literature and Popular Culture: Masculinity, Abjection, and the Fictional Child Contributor(s): Wannamaker, Annette (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415974690 ISBN-13: 9780415974691 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $190.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: July 2007 Annotation: Boys in Childrens Literature and Popular Culture: Masculinity, Abjection, and the Fictional Child proposes new theoretical frameworks for understanding the contradictory ways masculinity is represented in popular texts consumed by boys in the United States. The popular texts boys like are often ignored by educators and scholars, or are simply dismissed as garbage boys should be discouraged from enjoying. However, examining and making visible the ways masculinity functions in these texts is vital to understanding the broad array of works that make up childrens culture and form dominant versions of masculinity. Such popular texts as Disney films, Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, and Japanese manga and anime often perform rituals of subject formation in overtly grotesque ways that repulse adult readers and attract boys. They often use depictions of the abject threats to bodily borders to blur the distinctions between what is outside the body and what is inside, between what is I and what is not I. Becauseof their reliance on depictions of the abject, those popular texts that most vigorously perform exaggerated versions of masculinity also create opportunities to make dominant masculinity visible as a social construct. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Children's & Young Adult Literature - Social Science | Popular Culture |
| Dewey: 813 |
| LCCN: 2007002634 |
| Series: Children's Literature and Culture (Hardcover) |
| Physical Information: 0.56" H x 5.98" W x 9.02" (1.01 lbs) 200 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Masculine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Boys in Children's Literature and Popular Culture proposes new theoretical frameworks for understanding the contradictory ways masculinity is represented in popular texts consumed by boys in the United States. The popular texts boys like are often ignored by educators and scholars, or are simply dismissed as garbage that boys should be discouraged from enjoying. However, examining and making visible the ways masculinity functions in these texts is vital to understanding the broad array of works that make up children's culture and form dominant versions of masculinity. Such popular texts as Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, and Japanese manga and anime often perform rituals of subject formation in overtly grotesque ways that repulse adult readers and attract boys. They often use depictions of the abject - threats to bodily borders - to blur the distinctions between what is outside the body and what is inside, between what is "I" and what is "not I." Because of their reliance on depictions of the abject, those popular texts that most vigorously perform exaggerated versions of masculinity also create opportunities to make dominant masculinity visible as a social construct. |