| Literature
and the Child: Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999 Review by Margot Hillel, Australian Catholic University, Victoria Constructions of childhood, especially the influence of Romanticism on these constructions, continue to preoccupy many historians, those interested in cultural studies or in children's literature and even the popular media. In his introduction McGavran demonstrates the continuation of Romantic notions even in the modern American comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. McGavran demonstrates how even this work, apparently so far from the life, times and influence of Wordsworth and the other Romantic poets, does in fact reflect their concerns. Childhood, as a time of play and innocence, concern about the influence of cities and the valorising of the country all appear. This book, although now some years old, is a valuable source for those interested in these constructions. Some of the essays provide a general discussion on such constructions, others, such as the final two in the book, are about quite specific works. A variety of theories is used to interrogate and examine the notions of Romantic childhood. The book is a diverse collection of essays, but one which has the inter-linking theme of the influence of Romanticism on Western notions of childhood. It is a book which, James McGavran tells us, he envisaged as a continuation of his earlier Romanticism and Children's Literature in Nineteenth-Century England and which would follow the influence or re-conceptualising of Romanticism up to the present (12). The "Romantic myth of childhood" has, McGavran argues, been increasingly interrogated over recent times and this book will contribute to that debate and interrogation. The book is divided into four sections, each exploring an aspect of Romanticism or its application: "Romanticism Continuing and Contested"; "Romantic Ironies, Postmodern Texts"; "Romanticism and the Commerce of Children's Books"; "Romantic Ideas in Cultural Confrontations". Hugh Cunningham, amongst others, has argued that ideas of "childhood" have been around far longer than Rousseau, for example and this idea is echoed by Alan Richardson. He questions too, whether Romanticism really provided "an adequate foundation for social discourses aimed at improving the child's status" (27). He points out too, that for all radical reformers, among others, embraced Romantic poetry, Romantic ideas of childhood really privileged the wealthy and that the ideas took a long time to provide any improvement in the lives of poor children. Mitzi Myers's essay forms the other essay in this first part of the book and she brings feminist theory to bear in questioning the construction of Romanticism. She focuses too, on a reading of Maria Edgeworth's story "The Good Aunt". The second part of the book includes Dieter Petzold's "Taking Games Seriously" - the games he explores being those that Romantic writers play with their readers, both in the past and in contemporary fantasy. Richard Flynn, unlike most of the writers in this collection, explores adult texts - American poetry - and the way these works construct a Romantic child figure. McGarvan's own chapter starts, as he says, with a "concern for homeless children" (16). He argues that there is an inherent homoerotic element in the Romantic "exaltation" of boyhood (16) and he thus interrogates Romantic notions of childhood. Further, he argues there is a conflict between our current notions and support for the nuclear family with the Romantic views of an idealised boyhood (131). In the section "Romanticism and the Commerce of Children's Books" Anne Lundin discusses the popularity of Kate Greenaway's work and the way in which it was championed by a few key figures in American children's literature and, through their influence how her work came to have widespread and lasting appeal. Paula Connolly explores the effect of Disney on the Winnie-the-Pooh stories and their commercialisation. In her work she argues that in Milne's stories, Pooh himself is actually the emblem of Romantic notions of childhood (195), but the sentimentalisation of him in the Disney version alters the construction of both Pooh and Christopher Robin. The Disney version is also, she argues, less insightful than the original. The final two essays each explore specific texts - one, by William Scheik, is on Mary Austin, an American woman who wrote across the fin-de-siecle of the nineteenth century. She joined notions of Romanticism on childhood and nature with Native American story. She emphasised the importance of women as storytellers and gendered nature itself as female. Her influence, Scheik argues, can be seen in more recent works such as Jean George's Julie of the Wolves (226). Teya Rosenberg's is the final essay in the book and it examines Ruth Nichols's Song of the Pearl in the light of the closeness of fantasy and Romanticism. With the exception of Dieter Petzold, all the contributors are at American universities, although the subjects about which they write go well beyond that country, despite the fact that, in a number of cases, the focus is particularly American. Parallels can be drawn with texts published outside that country. Each of the contributors, however, contends that Romantic notions continue to dominate our views of childhood today (13) and it is this that they explore in different ways in their essays. This
is a fascinating collection, with far-reaching application
beyond the field of children's literature. Those of
us who continue to be interested in constructions of
childhood, especially in children's literature, will
realise that these have not changed a great deal in
the five years since the publication of this book and
that it therefore has continuing currency. Margot Hillel |