Victorian Children’s Literature: Experiencing Abjection, Empathy, and the Power of Love (Critical Approaches to Children's Literature)

This Book Reveals How The Period's Transforming Identities Affected By Social, Economic, Religious, And National Energies Offers Rich Opportunities In Which To Analyze The Relationship Between Identity And Transformation. At The Heart Of This Study Is This Question: What Is The Relationship Between Victorian Children's Literature, Its Readers, And Their Psychic Development? Ruth Y. Jenkins Uses Julia Kristeva's Theory Of Abjection To Uncover The Presence Of Cultural Anxieties And Social Tensions In Works By Kingsley, Macdonald, Carroll, Stevenson, Burnett, Ballantyne, Nesbit, Tucker, Sewell, And Rossetti. Introduction: Emerging Identities And The Practice Of Possibility -- Imagining The Abject In Kinsley, Macdonald, And Carroll: Disrupting Dominant Values And Cultural Identity In Children's Literature -- Gender, Abjection, And Coming Of Age: Games, Dolls, And Stories -- Constructing The Self: Connection And Separation -- Giving Voice To Abjection: Experience And Empathy -- Engendering Abjection's Sublime: Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden. Ruth Y. Jenkins. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 177-184) And Index. Dedication 6 Acknowledgments 8 Contents 10 Abbreviations 12 Chapter 1: Introduction: Emerging Identities and the Practice of Possibility 13 Construction of Self 15 Critical Context: Children’s Literature 16 The Open Psychic Structure of Adolescence 18 The Signifying Process 20 Abjection 21 Imaginative Transference 22 An Ethics of Love 24 Abjection’s Sublime 26 Notes 29 Chapter 2: Imagining the Abject in Kingsley, MacDonald, and Carroll: Disrupting Dominant Values and Cultural Identity in Children’s Literature 33 Abjection 34 The Water-Babies: Undermining Absolutes 35 MacDonald’s Princess Books: Creating an Inclusive Culture 40 Carroll’s Alice Books: Abjection’s Threat 45 Conclusion 51 Notes 52 Chapter 3: Gender, Abjection, and Coming of Age: Games, Dolls, and Stories 56 Sublimating Abjection 57 Adolescent and Imaginative Transference 58 Treasure Island: The Values of Abjection 59 A Little Princess: Abjection’s Generative Possibility 65 Conclusion 73 Notes 74 Chapter 4: Constructing the Self: Connection and Separation 76 Psychic Splitting and the Emergent Self 77 Beloved Authority and the Narrative I 78 The Coral Island: The Process of As-If-I Reading 80 Abjection’s Ambiguity 86 The Emerging Self 89 The Beloved Authority 90 Imaginative Transference 92 The Story of the Treasure Seekers: Achieving Imaginative Transference 93 The Maternal 97 Beloved Authorities 99 Imagining Alternatives 102 Conclusion 103 Notes 104 Chapter 5: Giving Voice to Abjection: Experience and Empathy 108 As-If-Other 108 Extreme Other 110 Rambles of a Rat 111 Black Beauty 118 Herethics and Empathy 127 Notes 127 Chapter 6: Engendering Abjection’s Sublime: Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden 130 Victorian Social Theories 133 Abjection’s Presence 135 Denying Abjection 137 Garden as Chora 138 The Dynamic Relationship between the Symbolic and Semiotic 141 Maternal Love 144 Conclusion 149 Notes 149 Chapter 7: Embodying Herethics: Rossetti’s Speaking Likenesses 155 Reception of Speaking Likenesses 156 Rereading Speaking Likenesses 157 Frame as Interplay 160 Developing Empathy 164 Flora’s Story: Creative Engagement with Abjection 169 Edith’s Story: The Lack of Connection and Absent Beloved Authority 171 Maggie’s Story: Embodied Herethics 174 Conclusion 178 Notes 179 Conclusion—Abjection’s Sublime: Imagining Love 183 Notes 185 Bibliography 187 Index 195 Front Matter....Pages i-xi Introduction: Emerging Identities and the Practice of Possibility....Pages 1-20 Imagining the Abject in Kingsley, MacDonald, and Carroll: Disrupting Dominant Values and Cultural Identity in Children’s Literature....Pages 21-43 Gender, Abjection, and Coming of Age: Games, Dolls, and Stories....Pages 45-64 Constructing the Self: Connection and Separation....Pages 65-96 Giving Voice to Abjection: Experience and Empathy....Pages 97-118 Engendering Abjection’s Sublime: Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden ....Pages 119-143 Embodying Herethics: Rossetti’s Speaking Likenesses ....Pages 145-172 Back Matter....Pages 173-190 This book reveals how the period@0394@03C3s transforming identities affected by social, economic, religious, and national energies offers rich opportunities in which to analyze the relationship between identity and transformation. At the heart of this study is this question: what is the relationship between Victorian children@0394@03C3s literature, its readers, and their psychic development? Ruth Y. Jenkins uses Julia Kristeva@0394@03C3s theory of abjection to uncover the presence of cultural anxieties and social tensions in works by Kingsley, MacDonald, Carroll, Stevenson, Burnett, Ballantyne, Nesbit, Tucker, Sewell, and Rossetti