Date of Award
1998
Degree Name
Humanities
College
College of Liberal Arts
Type of Degree
M.A.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Dr. Tina Hanlon
Abstract
Modern children’s literature stresses individualism and multiculturalism. The first concerns the push in children’s literature to place more emphasis on developing a child’s individuality, to celebrate individual triumph rather than communal action. This trend seems to have succeeded in its goal. As Perry Nodelman states in The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, “Surprisingly few texts for children celebrate the value of groups of people working together as equals as opposed to the power of individuals controlling groups” (121- 122). The second, and more recent trend, concerns what Ron Jobe and many other critics of children’s literature believe to be the goal of multiculturalism: “A major part of any approach to literature or indeed multiculturalism should be to place greater emphasis on the commonalities and similarities among peoples rather than their differences” (qtd. in Nodelman 131). While addressing similarities and commonalities is an important part of multiculturalism, it is also true that, as Nodelman counters, “For better or worse our membership in specific groups is part of what does indeed make us different from each other” (131). Membership in specific groups is what provides us with our identity, an identity that contemporary writers and illustrators of Appalachian picture books endeavor to convey to their readers.
Subject(s)
Appalachians (People) in literature.
Identity (Psychology) in literature.
Appalachian Region, Southern -- In literature.
Recommended Citation
Teaford, Judy A., "Contemporary Appalachian picture books" (1998). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 1905.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/1905
