Search

Stories have long been used as a vehicle to teach about character and virtue. Insight into the efficacy and potential of stories for this purpose can be gained through reviewing historical and theoretical approaches together with research studies which have explored children's cognitive and behavioural outcomes, virtue literacy development, and the factors that may influence their learning. However, while historical and contemporary theory and research on this topic can be illuminating, there has been a notable absence of research into the perceptions and approaches of those who arguably have the best understanding of children's learning: classroom teachers. This thesis contributes to existing knowledge in the field through filling this void in the research literature and examining how, and the extent to which, primary school teachers in England value and use stories as a vehicle to teach character education. First, the existing theory and research relating to story-based character education is examined. The rationale, methodology and findings of the research study are then presented, the findings are interpreted, and the implications for the theory and practice of story-based character are discussed. The research study followed a quasi-mixed design in which there were two strands running sequentially. In strand one, predominantly quantitative data were collected through a survey which was administered to primary school teachers online (N=220). In strand two, qualitative data were collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews with primary school teachers (n=15). The research findings offer new insight by indicating how primary school teachers value and use stories as a vehicle for teaching character education, and how teachers' perceptions and approaches align with those documented in the existing literature. As such, the findings highlight areas of current practice that corroborate, but also add qualification to and extend, existing knowledge in the field. Primary school teachers in this study were found to highly value stories as a vehicle through which to teach character education. Notably, stories were highlighted as the main and most useful vehicle that primary school teachers have to develop the character of their pupils. The findings also reveal that primary school teachers seek to facilitate pupils' learning from short stories through questioning, discussion, and other reading-related activities. While some of the approaches used by primary school teachers appear to overlap with those documented in the existing literature, the story types used in primary schools differ from the story types advocated in some research-informed and contemporary approaches. Primary school teachers utilise short, simplistic stories and some appear to refrain from using religious stories and more detailed narratives. As a result, it is contended that opportunities to develop capacities associated with the moral imagination and virtue literacy, such as the ability of pupils to deliberate and reason about competing virtues in story and real-life contexts, may be missed. The findings also indicate that very few primary school teachers have received training in using stories to teach character education, despite the majority reporting that they use stories for this purpose at least once a week. While the findings indicate that primary school teachers are conscious of some of the factors that have previously been found to influence children's learning from stories, such as the age of story characters and similarity of story contexts to pupils' lives, the potential detrimental effects of fantastical story content are not acknowledged to the same extent. These findings have implications for the future training and development of primary school teachers; there appears to be a need for professional development in the use of stories to teach character education and related areas in schools. There may be potential to enhance practice through engagement with the existing theory and research literature which points to the value of using rich story characters and contexts as a basis for developing virtue reasoning and deliberation. Furthermore, the findings indicate that despite the high value attributed to stories for teaching character education, primary school teachers have limited time to carry this out in practice due to the perceived demands of the wider curriculum. The potential value of story-based character education as a means through which to help to develop the character and personal development of pupils may be constrained as a result.

Learning a second language (L2) requires extensive input, and interaction in the target language can allow learners to notice and adjust their language use. Pedagogical activities that involve small-group discussions around literary texts have the potential to provide such learning opportunities. There is limited empirical research in the fields of L2 learning and teaching, however reader response research demonstrates that in-depth exploration of interpretations can be facilitated and suggests that critical pedagogies where learners act as problem-posers and problem-solvers may facilitate democratic dialogue (Short, 2011). This interdisciplinary shared goal of negotiation of meaning follows the Education 2030's (UNESCO, 2016) global aims of furthering democracy. This qualitative study aims to provide insights into how reading circles can facilitate opportunities for interaction in L2 English and responses to literary texts. Data was generated from classroom observations and transcripts of audio recordings of learner-led reading circles with roles, Young Adult (YA) novels, and adolescent learners of English as a Second Language at a Swedish middle school. Selected purposively to draw insights from established communicative practices, this school implements reading circles regularly with their L2 English learners. Framed by sociocultural theory and the concept of languaging (Swain & Watanabe, 2013), the iterative linguistic and reader response analysis generated an analytical framework that draws on findings from Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and reader response studies with picturebooks and younger learners. Main findings demonstrate how the learners co-constructed collaborative dialogue that involved appropriation of lexis and selfand other-repair of form, lexis, and narrative details. Supporting previous SLA research, this suggests how learner-led reading circles can provide opportunities for noticing form and lexis and adjustment of language in interaction. It also contributes to understanding how they can allow for negotiation of narrative details and regulation of reading comprehension. Adding to reader response research with adolescent L2 learners and YA novels, a typology of responses was developed that demonstrate how the learners made intertextual links within the novels and between the novels and their own narratives of life. This contributes to the discussion of the potential of literary texts to foster empathy by providing insights into how the learners drew on emotional responses to express compassion for or reject the characters' actions. In sum, the learners' interactions and negotiation of meaning suggest they were involved in deliberative communication, a pedagogical pursuit that aims to facilitate democratic processes (Englund, 2006).

The thesis investigates children's crime and detective fiction (CCF) and its translation from English into German. The basis for the analysis is a corpus of six contemporary English source texts (STs), written for a readership between the ages of 9-12 years. The initial hypothesis is that CCF shares a range of features with adult crime and detective fiction (ACF), albeit often in modified form to make them suitable for a child readership, and that these features pose specific challenges for a translator due to the norms and constraints that govern children's fiction (CF) as well as detective and crime fiction specific norms. The aim is to analyse the shifts between the two corpora that result in an altered effect in translation and to examine whether these changes suggest that there might be divergences between the underlying norms in the source and target corpora. The thesis addresses a current research gap - there is no research into the translation of CCF at the time of writing to the best knowledge of the author. It also adds to the discussion around CCF as a genre since there are large discrepancies in existing research which has a tendency to either apply neat categories derived from ACF terminology to CCF texts or to remain vague about the elements which a text must possess in order to be part of the genre. This thesis arrives at a flexible definition that is nevertheless precise enough to create a coherent corpus with shared features which allows for a discussion of similarities and differences between the texts as well as how the features perform in translation. It also utilises ACF terminology but acknowledges the presence of multiple ACF elements within each CCF text, an aspect of CCF which some existing research does not address. My findings have led me to conclude that CCF is indeed a genre with distinctive core features - the raison d'être for the text is an actual or suspected crime, the child protagonist sets out to actively investigate this crime and the text is written to suit the cognitive level of the child readership - as well as secondary features that are closely related to ACF such as clues and misdirection. The analysis of selected features shows that there are significant shifts between STs and target texts (TTs) but that the level of translator intervention varies widely between texts with some translators adhering more closely to the ST than others. The shifts themselves are frequently shifts in degree rather than substance - the level of suspense may, for example, be heightened or lessened in translation - and they often amplify elements of the text that facilitate reader engagement. Overall, the norms in the two corpora appear to coincide, with transgression and criminality being framed in a similar manner, for example. The thesis also suggests areas for future research to build on the findings which will be discussed below.

Yn y traethawd hwn, ffocysir ar y berthynas rhwng darlun, y gair a'r darllenydd mewn pedwar cylchgrawn Cymraeg i blant rhwng 1892 a 1930. Canolbwyntir ar y cylchgronau Cymru'r Plant, Perl y Plant, Trysorfa y Plant a Y Winllan. Eir ati i ateb tri phrif gwestiwn ymchwil sef beth yw'r rheswm dros gynnwys y darluniau yn y cylchgronau, sut y mae'r darluniau'n cael eu defnyddio a sut y mae gair, darlun a darllenydd yn rhyngweithio i greu ystyr? Dadleuir nad unig bwrpas y darluniau yn y cylchgronau yw addurno'r tudalennau a symleiddio'r testun geiriol, ond yn hytrach mae ganddynt swyddogaeth bwysig a llawer mwy cymhleth na hynny. Mae'r berthynas rhwng darlun, gair a darllenydd yn y cylchgronau yn arwyddocaol ac amlhaenog. Yn y bennod gyntaf, cyflwynir y cwestiynau ymchwil, y fethodoleg a'r theorïau sy'n sail i'r ymchwil. Ceir hefyd drosolwg o'r gwaith ymchwil yn y maes a rhywfaint o gefndir y cylchgronau a chefndir llenyddiaeth plant yng Nghymru yn y cyfnod. Ffocws yr ail bennod yw'r darluniau portreadol sy'n ymddangos yn y cylchgronau. Dadansoddir portreadau o arweinwyr crefyddol, ffigurau Prydeinig, menywod, plant, pobl ifanc a phortreadau rhyngwladol. Eir ati yn y drydedd bennod i werthuso'r berthynas rhwng darlun, gair a darllenydd yn yr eitemau storïol, yn cynnwys darluniau sy'n cyd-fynd â straeon byrion, barddoniaeth a straeon darluniadol heb eiriau. Gobeithir y bydd y cysyniadau theoretig a drafodir, y fethodoleg a fabwysiadir a chanfyddiadau'r ymchwil yn cynnig golwg newydd ar ddarluniau a'u perthynas â geiriau a'r darllenydd mewn llenyddiaeth Gymraeg i blant ac yn ysgogi ymchwil pellach yn y maes.

This thesis explores the influence multilingualism has on the creative process of multilingual authors and/or illustrators from minority-language backgrounds during both the genesis and further translation of picture books. I reflect on what the multilingual competence of the agents involved in the publishing process means for activities such as writing, translation, editingand illustration. By viewing the creative processes involved as forms of inter-or intralingual textual transformations or inter-or intrasemiotic transformations (conjoining Roman Jakobson's and Benjamin Lefebvre's terms), this thesis adopts a multifaceted view of translation and highlights the multitudinous nature of transformative processes involved in the creation and publication of picture books by minority-language authors. To explore these topics, I analyse the texts, paratexts and avant-textesrelating to two case studies: the Alsatian author-illustrator Tomi Ungerer andtheRomansh author and illustrator duo formed by Selina Chönz and Alois Carigiet. Both case studies experienced huge international success and won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for either writing or illustration.1These case studieswere selectedbecause they illuminate how the interaction between text and illustration shapes both the product and processes involved in the genesis of picture books and their further translation. The creative process examined in the first case is the experience of an individual multilingual author-illustrator, whereas the latter case it is thecollaboration between multiple multilingual agents. Multiple languages, multiple voices and multiple transformative processes are already inherent in the genesis of picture books by minority-language authors, which in the case of picture books are then expanded through further processes of verbal and visual transformation. This thesis combines the analysis of two peripheral literatures, of minority-language literature and of children's literature, bringing all these factors to bear onthe discussion ofthe fluid nature of writing and translation.

This thesis consists of a completed, young-adult, dystopian, fantasy novel, iNSiDE, and a series of non-fiction essays that focus on ruins, Dead Spaces: An Invitation to See the Forgotten. The novel centers around Naya Tambor, who has never been Outside. No one in her city has. A study of white and grey, her Indoor city makes up for its lack of color with its unpredictable transformations. Doors disappear. Windows move. Rooms grow and shrink. Naya knows her city inside and out, but she still hasn't been able to find a place where she belongs. Despite being raised by soldiers, Naya struggles to complete her training. One last test stands between her and graduation, before she can be assigned a unit - a family. It should have been easy. She knew how to fight and she knew her opponent would be the traitorous, subspecies of human, she had been trained to hate - a Spiravit. What she didn't know was that her rival, Zayn, would look so human. When her final exam turns into a fight to the death, Naya not only fails to follow through, she breaks the city's most sacred law. With only each other to turn to, Naya and Zayn flee to Zayn's home - a hidden pocket of Outside in the middle of her city. Naya is overwhelmed by the expansiveness of the Outdoors but even more so by the largest concentration of Spiravits she has ever encountered. Still, over time, Naya learns to grow beyond her inherited prejudices as she warms towards Zayn and the other Spiravits. But when one simple mistake tears apart the new future, and family, Naya had started to build, she must decide, once and for all, just how much she is willing to give up in order to belong. While the novel focuses on a fantastical future, the accompanying essays look to the past. Dead spaces refer to ruins that are forgotten and thus unseen by society and the essays invite readers to journey through Scotland in search of such places. Starting with a look at the history of ruin fascination that eventually culminated in the term Ruin Porn, the essays contextualize and introduce the author's obsession before travelling to an abandoned railway tunnel and a derelict asylum. Gales' background in architecture and photography ground her work in reality while a love of fantasy opens these realms to new imaginings. Dead Spaces is an invitation to see another world, hidden in plain sight within our own.

"Migration is a one-way trip; there is no 'home' to go back to" (Hall, 1987, p. 44). In this famous quotation, Stuart Hall points to how difficult it is to decide to migrate. When the people migrate from their country to a new country, they inevitably encounter many problems both in relation to their new country and their home country, because as migrants they can easily become strangers to both. If the migrant is a child or a teenager, it is obvious that they will experience these problems still more keenly. If all migrants lived in a single country named 'Migrantland', the country would be the fifth most crowded country in the world. Unsurprisingly, therefore, migration is one of the most controversial and important geopolitical issues in our world, especially at present for Europe--which is for complex cultural and historical reasons the first preference destination for many migrants, especially economic migrants and asylum seekers. This thesis aims to compare the fictional treatment of the common, shared issues of asylum seeker teenagers and economic migrant teenagers across a selected range of young adult literature texts. Four books from Turkish young adult literature were selected in order to analyse the images of modern Germany for Turkish economic migrant teenagers. The selected young adult British novels focus on the images of the UK for asylum seeker teenagers. It is important to note that this comparison includes innovative treatment of a literature--and indeed a historical and political phenomenon--little known to English-speaking audiences. As the thesis shows, the so-called Gastarbeiter phenomenon, by which from the 1960s onwards cheap low-skilled migrant labour was lured from poor, conservative, provincial regions of Turkey to the expanding hi-tech urbanised economy of (West) Germany, can be seen as a form of globalisation avant la lettre. The positive and negative effects of this economic, inter-generational migration to Germany on both Turks and Germans remain the subject of much controversy and have only in relatively recent times begun to receive public political and cultural recognition. The exploration in this thesis of YA Turkish fiction treating of this complex, difficult and layered experience is intended to open up new areas for literary-critical deliberation and civic debate. Against this turbulent background of crisis and change, this study intends to do several specific things. First, it seeks to compare and contrast fictional representations of the spectrum of responses to migrants from receiving societies--especially, in the chosen novels, the portrayal of both positive and negative responses from local people to migrant teenagers, a group that is routinely the focus of much hostility and stereotyping in the migration debate. For reasons explained in the methodology chapter, the thesis seeks to do this by applying a comparative framework to the novels in question. So, on the one hand, the thesis presents and examines what could be described as xenophobic, racist and discriminatory behaviours towards Turkish teenagers in Germany and asylum seekers in the UK; but it also unpacks and explores local people's more nuanced and more positive approaches to migrants, through close consideration of key narrative patterns, characters, relationships and dilemmas in the novels themselves. Secondly, using the narrated stories in each of the novels, the thesis tries to identify and tease out the critical differences and similarities between economic migrant teenagers and asylum seeker teenagers in the selected books. In this approach, these vital and often neglected differences between the types of migration occurring in 21st century global society are outlined, explained and interrogated. Lastly, the study tries, through close readings of its key texts, to examine some of the common major themes imprinting and shaping the lives of both economic migrant teenagers from the Turkish-German guest workers experience and asylum seeker teenagers in the UK-post-imperial setting. The thesis argues that detailed engagement with these literatures opens up new insights into the lives of young migrants of a kind that commonly eludes both the formal sociological profiling and journalistic investigation and campaigning through which they are most often incompletely represented. The findings of the study identify that the most significant factor, which affects the lives of both economic migrants and asylum seekers in their new countries is, in effect, globalisation itself. The accompanying clashes and exchanges between the modern cultures of indigenous Western people and the pre-industrial cultures of the migrants give rise, as we see, to many emotions, ranging from the toxic expression of xenophobia, racism, discrimination to the occasional manifestation of hope. It is the purpose of this thesis to examine this emotional spectrum in-depth and to fashion new tools for understanding it.

Translated children's literature represents a cultural experience which intervenes in a child's perception of the world, and its social value is thus important to examine. The aim of this thesis is to understand how translated children's literature is deployed as a tool to communicate to young readers representations of gender and physical difference, two notions that are pivotal within contemporary discussions of identity. To do this, it engages with the theoretical conceptualisations of translation, retranslation, rewriting and re-editioning which are located in the field of Translation Studies. The thesis turns to two classical European children's tales - Le Avventure di Pinocchio (1883) [The Adventures of Pinocchio] and La Belle et la Bête (1756) [Beauty and the Beast] - to explore how processes of translation affect the construction, transmission and transformation of gender and physical difference in stories for children. It examines how translation can intervene in the way in which these notions are exhibited in these two popular children's tales, both of which have travelled diachronically and diatopically. Le Avventure di Pinocchio and La Belle et la Bête have been passed from generation to generation and from culture to culture since their inception, and they are thus ideally positioned to investigate how the child reader has been presented with notions of identity at different moments in time and in different cultural contexts. The analysis specifically considers how these two classics of children's literature have journeyed to and within Britain, carrying images of gender and physical difference with them. It aims to disentangle those images as they cross cultural, linguistic and temporal borders and are reshaped for young audiences in Britain over time. As its methodological approach, it uses retranslation, rewriting and re-editioning to unpack how translation can mediate in portrayals of gender and physical difference and how this, in turn, can shape children's narratives.

This study explores the representation of the Greek 1940s in the fiction for young readers published between 1974 and 2014. This is a subject that has remained completely unexplored until now, despite the existence of a vast body of literature on the relationship between history, memory and cultural representations of the turbulent Greek 1940s. Covering the period from the restoration of democracy in 1974 until 2014, the corpus of literary texts under scrutiny comprises forty one novels and short story collections written for a young audience. The study is divided into three Parts, each of which examines the representation of certain aspects of the 1940s (foreign occupation, wartime collaboration, Resistance and Civil War) in the narratives published during 1974-1981, 1982-1989 and 1990-2014, respectively. The last chapter explores the construction of the literary image of the Jew and the representation of the Greek Jewish experience of the Holocaust. I argue that young people's fiction has served as a privileged site for the perpetuation of official national (re)interpretations and changing popular perceptions of this turbulent period. Consequently, I go on to demonstrate that the authors' decision to include or exclude certain material from their fictional representations of the 1940s is linked to the prevailing politics of memory during the particular periods under study.

Edith Nesbit has long held a place in the canon of Anglophone children's literature where her work has captivated generations of readers, yet to date there has been no comprehensive study of her work from a translation studies perspective. This thesis attempts to take the first step towards filling this void and examines the translations of Nesbit's work into French over the past hundred years. Between 1906 and 2019 seventeen translators were involved in producing twenty-three translations of her work for the European Francophone market: a corpus of translated texts which includes a eclectic cross-section of genres published for children, as well as a selection of short stories targeted at older readers. This study attempts to humanise translation history and reveal the network of actors responsible for introducing Nesbit's writing to France, not only translators, but also the literary agents and publishers that championed her work. More specifically, drawing on extensive archival research, descriptive textual analysis and testimonies from the translators themselves this study reveals cultural modifications of the text, looks at how the texts were prepared and repackaged for a new audience, and considers the curation of Edith Nesbit's reputation in France.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine how fairy tale discussions and activities affect children’s responses to literary gendered stereotypes. The children in this investigation were aged between four and six years. Notably, much of the earlier research in this area was carried out over thirty years ago with articulate 7- to 11-year-olds; this study aimed to identify the potential for imaginative transformations in the younger formative group and contribute towards their theoretical and practical knowledge base in the Early Years. A participatory Mosaic approach was adopted to enable the children in small, single-sex and mixed gender groupings, to express their interpretations, experiences and understanding about the story messages as fully and naturally as possible. Information on their family and school cultures was gathered through questionnaires and interviews with parents and teachers in three town state schools and a private Waldorf Steiner kindergarten. The study determined that cultural influences were even stronger and more exaggerated than in the past, with boys using dominant and powerful language, whilst girls used mostly diminishing and understating words. Similar to earlier studies, the children were initially resistant to alternative and subversive gender models; in spite of the stereotypical responses identified, I noted that some children, and boys in particular, were beginning to be receptive to different gendered perspectives following the discussions and activities. This research has shown the urgent need to provide a greater diversity of role models in books at school, and in training and support for adults, particularly fathers, in respect of critical storytelling strategies. But most significantly, this study’s findings have broken new ground in this area and shown that despite cultural pressure to conform to gendered patterns of behaviour, young children can be encouraged to think critically and positively about their own gendered identity and cultural messages.

Underpinned by a constructionist approach to adolescence, this doctoral thesis investigates the ways in which Arab adolescents are represented in the field of Arabic adolescent fiction. More specifically, it examines how they are spoken of in the publishing scene, how they are imagined as characters in novels labelled as adolescent fiction and how these ideas are received by young people themselves. The focus will be on contemporary realistic adolescent literature published since 2000. The study adopted a multi-pronged research strategy that included interviews with ten authors and publishers of Arabic adolescent fiction, close reading of two selected novels and fieldwork with a class of adolescent readers in a state secondary school in Beirut, Lebanon to capture their responses to Arabic adolescent fiction. The constructs elaborated by these actors and within the novels were then examined in relation to wider discourses on adolescence and youth, including dominant developmental paradigms. The authors and publishers interviewed engaged with several constructs of adolescence, such as the developmental adolescent, the adolescent as future citizen and the adolescent consumer with unprecedented access to the world of information and global culture. In turn, adolescent literature was envisioned as needing to appeal and address the needs of this target group while also fulfilling its socialising function in preparing young people for their future as mature adults and active citizens at home in their cultural identity. Two Arabic adolescent novels selected by the research participants were analysed: Cappuccino by Fatima Sharafeddine (2017) and The Mystery of the Falcon Eye by Taghreed Najjar (2014). The novels presented different models of adolescence and charted the growth of the main protagonists towards greater comfort in their gender and national identities while they remained entrenched in relations of interdependence with family members, peers and community members. The novels also explored young people’s power negotiations with oppressive structures such as the patriarchy and military occupation, presenting avenues for resistance and societal change as well as drawing the limits of youthful agency. Three main themes emerged from the fieldwork with adolescent readers, and they bore evidence to the cultural positioning of the students as well as the cultural content embedded in the texts, in line with Brooks & Browne’s (2012) theory of culturally situated reader response. To begin with, they engaged on an ethical level with the characters in the novels, and their moral evaluations were informed by ideologies of justice, age as well as models of social relationships that prioritised interdependence. Secondly, the students demonstrated an awareness of the links between larger societal and political structures and the personal struggles of characters through the issues raised by the novels. Finally, there was an intense debate around language variety, in particular the use of Colloquial Arabic in the novels. This discussion touched on the dual role of literature to educate and entertain, the links between standard Arabic and cultural identity and the existence of linguistic considerations specific to literature that targets adolescents. By venturing into relatively under-studied fields, the study makes a case for more research into Arabic adolescent novels and adolescent readers’ engagement with literature as well as their increased visibility in the scholarship on international children’s literature, Arab literature, literacy and the cultural history of the region. In addition, it also advocates for research and teaching methodologies with the adolescent at their centre rather than in the margins.

This thesis examines Edith Nesbit's children's novels written between 1907 and 1913. Major works in focus include The Enchanted Castle (1907), The House of Arden (1908), Harding's Luck (1909), The Magic City (1910), The Wonderful Garden (1911), and Wet Magic (1913). The study inquires into the ways in which Nesbit applies views about children and childhood to explore and express three major political ideologies: power, socialism, and sexuality. Interrogating the connection between fantasy and agentic powers, the use of fictional child figures within the socialist context, and the connection between gender authority and sexual maturation, the analysis challenges the idealisation of childhood. Placing these novels in the Edwardian literary and socio-political contexts, the representation of children in Nesbit's works reflects and questions the concurrent attitudes towards children and adults' treatment of the young members of society.

The current global trends in migration and transnationalism mean societies around the world are increasingly becoming culturally, ethnically and racially mixed. In such a world there ought to be changes to educational policy, curricula and school practices to reflect the linguistic and cultural diversity of students. There is an urgent need for people to understand and empathise with one another and to overcome the many cultural differences that act as barriers to community and communication. It is gratifying, therefore, to see varied and inclusive pedagogic practices being used to equip young learners with the skills to bridge cultural gaps. One such resource is children’s literature, and in recent years educators have been using picturebooks, ‘a species of children’s literature’ (Kümmerling-Meibauer and Meibauer 2013, p 1), to address prominent issues of diverse experiences and global realities (Hope 2008; Rutter 2006). A number of recent studies have shown that using picturebooks enhances a range of skills, including language acquisition, visual literacy and cultural acclimatization (e.g., Arizpe et al. 2014; Bland 2013; McGilp 2014; Mourão 2012; Sipe 2008). These studies have used a range of theoretical frameworks to investigate the meaning-making processes of young readers. Located in this sociocultural milieu and in new directions in academic thought and pedagogic practices, this doctoral study investigates children’s visual, emotional and critical literacy from a multimodal and cognitive-literary perspective. The ‘mirror, windows and doors’ metaphor which argues that readers see reflections of themselves in what they read, look through windows into unfamiliar worlds and people, and finally step through new doors when they undergo a transformation in their understanding (Sims Bishop 1990) is a crucial understanding of literature that underpins this study. The overall hypothesis of the study is that appreciating the thoughts and feelings of characters in picturebooks can help hone emotional literacy skills in young readers, which in turn might facilitate a better understanding of real-life people. For my study I chose metafictive picturebooks, which are known to jar the readers into a sense of literary alertness and interactivity (Sipe & McGuire 2008). The inquiry involved longitudinal fieldwork with primary school-aged bilingual children, engaging in a variety of verbal and visual response tasks that focused on literary engagement with the texts. The results showed the children engaging deeply with the characters’ mental states, responding analytically to the visual and verbal synergy (Sipe 1998) and using their Theory of Mind to demonstrate identification with the textual characters. The affordances of the metafictive nature of the texts allowed a critical-questioning stance in the young readers, making them aware of their own responses of the texts, developing their emotional literacy and metacognitive skills. By highlighting the sophisticated natures of the young children’s responses and their ability to negotiate complex constructions in seemingly playful picturebooks, this study underscores the need for slow, careful and repeated looking and investigating texts as pieces of intriguing puzzles. Reading metafiction becomes an ‘embodied’ activity (Nikolajeva 2014b) where readers see, think, and feel, and simultaneously become aware of their own somatic responses. This ultimately develops emotional literacy as well as critical literacy skills. The study submits that careful and continued nurturing within and outside the school environment can make it possible for children to become aware of their own emotions, show increased awareness of others in interactions, as well as develop the potential to empathise and identify with people from backgrounds different to their own.

During the final decades of the nineteenth century girls' culture flourished. As recent scholarship has shown, this culture pivoted on an engagement with fiction and particularly the periodical press. Magazines such as the Girl's Own Paper and the Monthly Packet provided spaces where girls could benefit from being part of a larger network of contributors. The reciprocal reading and writing culture accessed through periodicals epitomised the experience of a creative and intellectual adolescence for many girls during the late-Victorian era. This thesis explores a discrete girls' culture that was also cultivated in diaries and circulated manuscript magazines during this period. As these writings were shared with family or peers respectively, they can be viewed as tools of socialisation or 'apprenticeships' in writing, as well as in girlhood. Yet girls' writings were also sites of resistance; in responding to the model literary and print culture in which they were immersed, girls cultivated an autonomous writing culture which hinged on strategies of adaptation and appropriation. Sociological theories of youth culture have demonstrated that young people actively contribute to cultural reproduction and change. When combined with theories of literary appropriation in this thesis, these insights shed light on the specific types of authorship which reflect girls' simultaneous participation in and exclusion from a dynamic literary and print culture. This thesis analyses the development of girls' literary culture in the late-Victorian manuscript writings. Moreover it contextualises girls' appropriative writing culture in broader debates concerning late-Victorian literature and publishing, gender and Girls Studies. Through considering little- or never-before-studied girls' manuscripts and texts as integral to late-Victorian literary culture, this thesis makes a significant and original contribution to these flourishing research areas. It contributes to the lively debate in childhood studies which seeks to assign agency to children in the archive, as well as the ongoing feminist project to incorporate female writings into the study of literary history.

Digital children’s literature is a relatively recently established field of research that has been seeking for its theoretical base and defining its position and scope. Its major attention so far has been on the narrative app, a new form of children’s literature displayed on a touchscreen computational device. The narrative app came into being around 2010, and immediately attracted the attention of the academics. So far, various studies have been conducted to explore its educational potential, but very few have investigated the app for what it is in its own right. To bridge the gap, this study has explored the nature of the narrative app and the essential principles of its narrative strategies. As the subject of this study concerns a variety of disciplines, this research has been conducted in an extremely interdisciplinary way in order to develop a thorough understanding of the narrative app. In general, it has consulted scholarship in children’s literature (picturebook studies in particular), narratology, computer science, game studies, social semiotics, film studies, media studies, communication studies, electronic literature and game design. With this interdisciplinary approach, this study has attempted to define the subject of the study, identify some tendencies in its development, and most importantly, develop an original theory of storytelling and a narrative map that may be able to explain the intrinsic methods used in the narrative app storytelling as well as other digital and non-digital storytelling. The findings of this study seem to suggest that the narrative app does not display any essential differences from the codex and other forms of literature in terms of its narrative strategies, but it appears to have great potential to truly innovate storytelling. It is suggested that this study may provide an effective theoretical scope and methodology for the study of the field of digital children’s literature, which may offer the potential to strengthen this field of research. The theoretical framework constructed by this study may be applicable to some educational approaches to the narrative app, and may also be useful for teaching new literacies.

The category of young adult (YA) fiction encompasses a wide range of genres; but despite this generic diversity, it has so far failed to represent the full range of communities that make up contemporary British society. Discussions are ongoing between professionals in the publishing industry and campaigning individuals and organisations who are aiming to redress this imbalance. Writers making new work are in a position to help effect a change, but acknowledging and responding to the call for inclusion can be far from straightforward, with questions being raised such as: ‘how far can a writer stray from their own lived experience?’ and ‘how can a writer avoid tokenism or cultural appropriation when writing for inclusion?’ This thesis consists of a new YA contemporary novel, Sea Change, and an accompanying critical essay, which reflects on the challenges I encountered while aiming to write for inclusion. Set in the Scottish Highlands, Sea Change is a contemporary YA crime novel, in which the world of the sixteen-year-old protagonist, Alex, is thrown into turmoil when he discovers a dead body next to his fishing boat. The decisions Alex makes following this discovery set in motion the plot of the story. The narrative, as it unfolds, facilitates the exploration of themes frequently associated with adolescence, such as friendship, risk-taking and the maturation into an adult identity, along with themes specifically linked to Alex’s status as a member of marginalised communities because of his sexuality and social class, such as prejudice, acute stress brought on by economic pressure, and low self-esteem. This thesis, then, reviews the opinions and recommendations being expressed by campaigners for greater diversity, and exposes the uncertainties and challenges a writer faces when aiming to write for inclusion.

Melbourne author Sonya Hartnett, adapts and updates the Australian Gothic within narratives that focus on individual subjectivities to bring to scrutiny the abuses that children suffer due to the invisibility of normative, hegemonic and conformist discourses. This study argues that Hartnett re-locates the colonial trope of the lost child from the wild setting of the bush to cultural topographies in the modern Australian context. The study's theoretical approach combines concepts from phenomenology, cultural geography and spectral studies to form an hauntology which is articulated and applied to detailed analyses of eleven of Hartnett's novels set in Australia. The conceptual framework is explained in chapter one and the remaining chapters group Hartnett's novels thematically and in relation to the settings inhabited by her young protagonists. This structure enables the consideration of the dialectical relationship between places 'exterior' to the subject such as the Australian suburb or country town and the psychological 'interior' of the mind. Furthermore the study proposes that phenomenological experiences of place, space and time are central aspects of Hartnett's work that function interdependently and impact upon identity.

This interdisciplinary study uses grounded theory to interrogate the socio-cultural relationship between readers and the texts written for them to explore the question of articulation between learners’ notions of teaching and narrative representations of teachers found in children’s literature from the UK. Utilising the principles of Personal Construct Psychology (Kelly 1955), an in-depth analysis of literature written for child- and young adult readers forms the basis of the study, the findings of which informed an exploration of participants’ perceptions of literary and actual teachers. A total of 163 teacher-characters from 45 examples of fiction for children and young adult readers were critiqued; as a result, eight prevalent character roles and traits were identified, developing previous findings by Dockett, Perry and Whitton (2010) from their study of teachers in English language picturebooks. Narrative methodologies, including character profile depictions and an approach based on the Storycrafting method (Karlsson and Riihelä 1991), were used in order to explore links between the depictions of characters in published works and the fictions created by 22 pupils aged 9-10 in an English primary school; this was repeated with ten university students training to teach on an undergraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degree. Finally, repertory grid interviews were conducted with all 32 participants to establish individuals’ construct systems regarding the characteristics of literary and actual teachers. Initially the study had intended to identify a taxonomy of archetypal characters, however the emerging constructs indicated a diversity of representation that would have rendered a taxonomy meaningless. Instead, the character roles and traits presented themselves as more meaningful sociocultural constructs. Their appearance in both the published and participants’ corpora indicated a direct link between the depictions of teachers in children’s literature and participants constructs regarding the role. Detailing the eight roles and traits of the teacher within Anglo-centric children’s literature, including four not previously identified, comprises an original contribution to knowledge, as does the utilisation of Personal Construct methodologies in the analysis of children’s literature. Broadening the study to include literature and participants from different socio-cultural groups, and the application of the methodology to examples of literature written by children are areas suggested for further research.

Critical literacy is widely acknowledged as a crucial component of 21st century literacies, with a growing number of researchers providing inspirational examples of what can happen when teachers create critically literate ‘niches’ or spaces in their classrooms (O’Brien 1994; Leland et al 2005; Souto-Manning 2009). Despite this increase in scholarly interest, schooling’s traditional focus on code-breaking and comprehension-type literacy practices (Leland et al 2005) has meant that critical literacy still remains on the margins of many classrooms and curricula, as a buzzword, add-on or extension task that is often reserved for the eldest or most able (Comber 2001). Consequently, researchers have found that a critical stance still does not come “naturally” to readers within schooled contexts (Ryan & Anstey 2003; Scull et al 2013), a situation that cannot be remedied until critical literacy is widely used and valued by readers both inside and outside of schools (Carrington & Luke 1997). Responding to this context and motivated by an absence of research into the critically literate practices of families, a key aim of this study has been to find ways of making space for more critical “ways with words” (Heath 1983) to emerge in places other than classrooms. Underpinned by a theoretical understanding that a powerful and productive relationship exists between the effects of metafiction and the broadly-agreed aims of critical literacy, this thesis is an account of what happened when a group of eight parents and their eight primary school-aged children encountered the complex, surprising and disruptive demands of metafiction in picturebooks. Discussions about the picturebooks were located across a range of school-based and out-of-school settings and the resulting qualitative, analytical inquiry focused specifically on the literacy resources that dominated these readers’ responses when they engaged with metafiction. Key findings included the fact that comments with a ‘critical edge’ always emerged in direct response to the provocations of metafiction. More specifically, this study has identified the ability of metafiction to provoke resistance as a reader response; an experience that made it possible for some readers to interrupt and question their ‘natural’ literacy practices. In addition, the effects of metafiction made it possible for readers to develop metaliterate understandings, a term used here to describe a heightened awareness of language in use and of reading as an active, social process of meaning-making. In both cases, the effects of metafiction helped to foreground the often invisible dispositions that give shape to understandings about words - and pictures - and, simultaneously, about the world (Freire 1985).

In today’s increasingly digitised world, we communicate both locally and globally across different languages, modes and media. Since the New London Group’s (1996) seminal ‘Pedagogy of Multiliteracies’ some twenty years ago, there have been further significant developments in the way we communicate, with the 21st century considered ‘the great age of translation’ (Bassnett 2014:1). Yet despite the increasing number of multilingual, multimodal texts we encounter, classrooms continue to teach traditional, monolingual print-based models of literacy. This research is therefore primarily in response to this rapidly evolving context, with a curiosity as to how international picturebooks might develop the skills learners need to succeed both now and in the future. The research process has been a journey comprising two separate phases of empirical study as I have sought to find out the best way to approach this topic. My initial focus, Phase One, was exploring the visual literacy skills of EAL learners and I completed a project in a primary school in Glasgow. As a result of the emerging findings, the research then changed in two ways – to a whole class approach comprising both bilingual and monolingual learners, and to a focus on translation. Phase Two comprised two whole class projects in the Scottish Borders, with my overarching question: How can translating both the verbal and visual in international picturebooks develop the multiliteracies learners require in the 21st century? In my discussions of multiliteracies, I have focused on four different areas: visual, critical, digital and intercultural literacies. Learners’ visual literacy skills were developed through their recognition of the cultural codes in visuals. Their critical literacies were developed through the recognition of power in texts, through deconstructing and reconstructing texts and seeking multiple perspectives. Digital literacies were improved through the critical retrieval of information online and through using tools such as Google Translate and, like Gilster (1997), I have suggested a key component of digital literacies is having an open mind as to the possibilities of emerging technologies. I also argue that intercultural literacy should be included under the umbrella of multiliteracies, in order to provide learners with the tools to navigate the increasingly multilingual, multicultural spaces they are likely to encounter, and offer tentative findings which show how translating international picturebooks has helped to develop these skills and attitudes. Prior to concluding the thesis, I briefly consider alternative lenses for the research, in particular Critical Race Theory, identity and translingualism. I then sum up the project in Chapter 11 and make some key recommendations, including the need for multiliteracies to be explicitly acknowledged in the curriculum and for international picturebooks, including those in the first languages (L1s) of the bilingual learners, to be introduced into classrooms to challenge the dominance of English and ‘what counts’ as reading. Alongside a discussion as to the limitations of the research and possible future directions, the thesis concludes with a call for both academics and educators to consider how the gap between research and practice might be reduced, to enable research such as this to have an impact on today’s literacy learners.

This thesis considers the works of six major literary figures in the context of their engagement with the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. These writers are, in order of analysis, Edwin Morgan, J.K. Rowling, Liz Lochhead, Alasdair Gray, Kathleen Jamie, and John Burnside. Each has produced a significant literary oeuvre which is examined here in relation to each other's work and to the Referendum debate. The multifaceted relationship between literature and politics is investigated through the lens of the Referendum, utilising these six figures as interrelated case studies. Chapter One explores Edwin Morgan and J.K. Rowling in relation to each other and the concept of nationalism as manifested in the Referendum period. Chapter Two focuses on postcolonialism and the work of Alasdair Gray and Liz Lochhead in that same context. The third and final chapter is concerned with Kathleen Jamie's and John Burnside's preoccupation with ecopoetics, and how that concern overlapped with Referendum discourse. This thesis provides new readings of these six writers in the context of the Referendum. It sets out to establish that, while their published literary works are often connected to the spectrum of stances these writers took regarding the Referendum, these works need to be considered with respect to the nuanced attention all six had previously given to key themes of the Referendum debate in the decades leading up to that political moment.

This project suggests that the exclusion of children from social discourse has been naturalized, and remains largely unchallenged in the West (Salisbury and Styles, 2012, p. 113). While some didactic picturebooks and pedagogies construct and perpetuate this exclusion, I will explore the potential of critical picturebooks and critical pedagogy to counter it. Critical picturebooks and critical pedagogy, I propose, can help to build and support the critical consciousness of readers, transforming their social relations. Specifically, this project is concerned with the exclusion of children from discourse on colonialism in Canada, and it highlights the need for critical consciousness in this area. I suggest that critical picturebooks can play a role in unsettling settler relations, or shifting Canada-Aboriginal relations towards more ethical ones. I therefore offer an anti-colonial pedagogy for picturebooks to facilitate these aims. This pedagogy is generated through putting theory on picturebooks, critical pedagogy, Indigenous methods, as well as local pedagogy in Alert Bay into an interdisciplinary conversation. I begin by asking ‘how can picturebooks function as transformative texts?’ Drawing on picturebook theory, I present five elements of critical picturebooks that make them conducive to transformative social discourse: 1) flexibility of the form (enabling complex, cross-genre narratives); 2) accessibility of composite texts (allowing for multiliteracies); 3) textual gaps in composite texts; 4) their dialogical nature (often being read and analyzed aloud); and, 5) their ability to address content silenced in many educational settings. I hold that “the plasticity of mind” which Margaret Mackey suggests is engendered by the picturebook’s flexible form (explicated by these five elements) also fosters a plasticity of mind in terms of the reader navigating social issues or complex problems presented in its content (as cited in Salisbury and Styles, 2012, p. 91). This dual plasticity positions the picturebook as a valuable and empowering discursive or dialogical tool. If, as Paulo Freire asserts, “it is in speaking their word that people, by naming the world, transform it, dialogue imposes itself as the way by which they achieve significance as human beings”, then it is crucial that children are included in social dialogue that has been typically reserved for adults (Freire, 2000, p. 69). I then discuss the ways in which my participatory action research (PAR) in the community of Alert Bay, British Columbia, illustrates the transformative potentials of picturebooks, and helped to form an anti-colonial pedagogy for picturebooks. Workshops with local children, young adults and adults examined the unique form and content of picturebook narratives. In following with Freire, the aim was not only to explore the pedagogical promise of existing texts, but also to co-develop tools with which participants generate their own self-representations. We focused on developing narratives on food, an important generative theme that connects many facets of life including experiences of colonialism. Through additional conversations and embodied learning activities, I was introduced to local anti-colonial pedagogical methods. I put these experiences into conversation with theories of critical pedagogy put forth by Freire, Ivan Illich, bell hooks and Henry Giroux and a discussion of Indigenous research and pedagogical methods offered by Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Sandy Grande, Leanne Simpson, Lynn Gehl, and curricular resources. This research culminated in making Grease, a picturebook on the importance of oolichan oil to Alert Bay, told from a visitor’s perspective. In creating Grease, I have aimed to practically apply my proposed pedagogy, and make my work available to both Alert Bay and (in the future) to readers farther afield. This is an effort to address the dearth of anti-colonial literature and education available to children in Canada and elsewhere. The final chapter of my thesis serves as an annotative guide to be read alongside Grease. The pedagogy and picturebook combined present tenable ways in which picturebooks can engage children in critical discussions of colonialism and function as transformative texts.

This thesis explores the representation of the contemporary secular angel in children’s literature, focusing on the works of three authors: David Almond, Philip Pullman, and Cliff McNish. In the works in question, the secular angel has been removed from all religious frameworks, including its traditional allegiance and obedience to a God or Devil figure. This absence, however, does not negate the existence of a moral compass, nor the importance of free will, which is bestowed upon and used by angelic and human characters alike. Transformation, one of the thesis’s key themes, becomes significant as I argue that the angelic figures bring about a transformation in the novels’ protagonists. Intertextuality forms an integral part of the analysis as the works of John Milton and William Blake are key reference points. The Introduction traces the angel’s trajectory from its scriptural tradition in the Middle Ages, to its progressive secularisation in the 20th century, and a chapter on each author follows. The thesis concludes by arguing that these angels’ role in children’s literature is to challenge and complicate notions of religion, innocence and experience, and science vs. faith, as they become representatives of a contemporary, secular philosophy, while retaining and embracing the spiritual.

This study seeks to explore how social constructions of femininity during the Romantic Period were challenged in literature by proto-feminists in such a way as to form a revised feminine ideal of which both radical and conservative women could approve. It is an exploration of both nurturing (the figurative breast) and punitive maternal power (the figurative cane) as portrayed in Mary Wollstonecraft’s novellas, Mary and Maria, Amelia Opie’s Adeline Mowbray, and Charlotte Smith’s Celestina. As these three authors’ social circles overlapped, they shared many of the same convictions, facilitating the analysis of the style and method of expressing these ideals. It is indisputable that women of the period were allotted some authority over their own children. However, the avenues of self-empowerment open to childless women have hitherto been overlooked. According to novels of the time, did women have any power over their own destinies? Did they have any socially acceptable power over men? This study’s aim is to discover if maternal authority was posed as an empowering tool for all women by tracing how it is being defined by Wollstonecraft in Thoughts on the Education of Daughters through an evolution from the overtly didactic style of works written for teachers and children (such as her Original Stories from Real Life) to the slightly more covert style of her two novellas, Mary and Maria. The similarity between the treatments of these two very different readers is carried forward through the examination of the other two authors (Opie’s Tales of the Pemberton Family and Adeline Mowbray; and Smith’s Rural Walks and Celestina). This study has found that all three authors commend the wielding of maternal power to their readers. The maternal voice of these authors and the portrayal of more traditional maternal roles in their didactic works for children and teachers draw parallels between this persuasive style and the style of the works written for adults seeking entertainment (rather than enlightenment). The authors’ treatment of these two categories of readers traces the use of maternal power as a tool for influencing the perception of the social status quo and indeed suggests a reification of maternal authority in order to empower the contemporary reader. Through copious examples in all of the texts, maternal power (even punitive power) is shown to be innocuous enough to challenge social constructions of femininity within the confines of prescribed socially acceptable behaviour detailed by the novelists themselves. These novelists therefore offer the reader an alternative interpretation of maternity by liberating the act of mothering from the biological state, in order to examine social maternity and its implications for proto-feminism.

This literary study is an analysis of fat child characters in British juvenile fiction, 1960 to 2010. The argument is that juvenile fiction, with growing frequency, has advanced lay psychological explanations for departures from a culturally sanctioned slender ideal. Detailing the socio-historical basis for changing literary constructions of the fat child comprises an original contribution to knowledge. Protagonists and peripheral characters from eighty-five examples of juvenile fiction are critiqued. At the start of the period, the majority of texts associate fatness with moral failings. By the middle of the period, fatness is predominantly associated with poor emotional health. This association persists until the period’s close, becoming entwined in the final decade with the increasing use of references to body fat as a means of demarcating the child’s position within commodity and celebrity cultures. No text foregrounds associations between fatness and physical health problems. Transitions from one dominant construction of fatness to another are accompanied by changes in how fat characters are gendered, classed and racialised. Issues of Jackie magazine (1964-1994) and contemporaneous psychological abstracts are examined as contextual material. The study concludes that discontinuities in constructions of the fat child express historically specific fears of social, economic, or political transformation in Britain. How child readers might comply with or rework literary constructions of the fat child is suggested as a topic for further research.

This thesis shows to what extent the study of Italian children's literature can benefit from an attentive analysis of the parallel corpus of translated works and of the interaction between the two. The first chapter argues that ignoring translated literature means we are telling only half of the story, since translations have had a strong impact not only on the development, but also on the formation of Italian literature for children. The second chapter disputes the assumed internationalism which suggests children's classics can cross linguistic and cultural boundaries 'naturally', employing research tools offered by Translation Studies: the mechanisms of transfer which can be observed when classics for children move from one culture into another reveal the many changes and adaptations that these books have undergone in order to be accepted in the target cultures, and also their transformation over time within their own source cultures. The third chapter explores links between translation, women's writing and children's literature by looking at the work of a limited number of significant Italian women translators of children's literature, whose contribution to Italian literature is still largely ignored. The historical period of Fascism provides a context for the observation of norms applying to literature for children in the fourth chapter. The idea that children would be much more ideologically pliable than adults led the regime to try to impose on children's books a set of norms conforming to its political aims. Following a broadly chronological line brings us, in the last chapter, to look at the way in which the penetration of innovative literary models and ideas through translation greatly influenced the development of indigenous children's literature in post-war Italy, as well as at the impact of globalisation from the 1980s onwards, both on Italian production and on imported children’s books, their distribution and reception.

In 1989 the American Surrealist associated painter, sculptor, and writer Dorothea Tanning (1910-2012) suggested an intermedial dimension to her multifaceted œuvre in her essay ‘Some Parallels in Word and Pictures.’ Taking this essay as a critical point of departure, this thesis offers an intertextual theorisation of Tanning’s practice. It concerns the role of narrative in her work, and the way in which she borrows from the histories of art and literature as source materials. The thesis presented here is that Tanning’s work from the context of Surrealism and beyond makes reference to the fairy tales and other, more extensive works of literature which she read in her youth whilst at work in her public library in Galesburg, Illinois, whether implicitly in visual references or explicitly in her works’ titles. Throughout, the library is read as a key source of inspiration. This is true too of the impact which Tanning’s belated visit to the Louvre had on her post-Surrealist stylistic development. Broadly, this thesis aims to rethink the methodologies used to interpret Surrealism, and reunite the literary and visual aspects upon which the Surrealist movement was initially founded. This interdisciplinary approach contributes fresh perspectives by marrying the history of Surrealism with that of the fairy tale, including that of Lewis Carroll, Hans Christian Andersen, and the fairy tale illustrations of Gustave Doré, Maxfield Parrish, Arthur Rackham, and John Tenniel. The anti-fairy tale emerges as useful critical tool in defining the intertext which appears when Surrealism and the fairy tale are paired. The ‘demythologising’ project of Angela Carter is useful to call upon in the articulation of the anti-fairy tale, and her work is easily placed in dialogue with that of Tanning, especially in terms of its feminist leanings. The dialogic, intertextual theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, further developed by Julia Kristeva and Roland Barthes, support this reading of Tanning’s visual narratives. More recently such theories of intertextuality have manifested themselves in the work of Dutch narratologist Mieke Bal who proposes a model of ‘preposterous history’ in order to creatively re-read the relationship between source (or pre-text) and intertext. This research is primarily text-based and devotes long-awaited attention to Tanning’s literary works which are read visually, including her short story ‘Blind Date’ (1943), and her novel 'Abyss' (1977), later reworked and republished as 'Chasm: A Weekend' (2004). I argue that her novel provides textual continuity with her Surrealist visual narratives of the 1940s creating a more cyclical, ‘preposterous’ shape to her career than has previously been acknowledged.

This thesis comprises critical reflection and novel. Claims for originality in the novel lie in the combination of the specific geographical location of Leeds, the 1970s setting, the narrative time frame of twenty‐four hours, and the use of the mundane not as a setting from which to escape but as one in which epiphanous moments can be found. These key decisions were made early in the evolution of the novel and are discussed, along with other issues such teenage sexuality, in the first section of the critical reflection. The novel’s main character, fourteen‐year‐old Daniel, is grieving over the loss of his mother, and bereavement becomes the focus of the second section, which comprises the main thrust of the reflection. In response to similar research undertaken in 1985, I take forty‐nine novels for ten to fourteen‐year‐olds written between 1997 and 2010 and analyse the presentation of bereavement therein, providing original data and opening up the novels to a scrutiny to which many have never been subjected. The previous research concludes that children’s novels offered little of value for bereaved children. I question whether writers for children have a duty to do anything but entertain by engaging with critical opinion past and present, and argue that it is impossible for a writer to avoid awareness of the age of the reader, that novels can affect children, and that consequently the writer must show moral and artistic responsibility in the presentation of important themes. My research suggests that gender differences are still present but are less emphatic, and that some novels present bereavement in a sanitised, irresponsible way or fail to present it at all. I also find the resolution of grief through the use of ghosts or visions neither realistic nor helpful. In the final chapter I explore ways in which the reading impacted positively upon the writing of Day and conclude that not only do the best of the novels treat bereavement with wit, insight and sensitivity, but that the eclectic mix of theme, character, voice and style across the books will provide inspiration for future projects for years to come.

Lewis Carroll, and George MacDonald are responsible for some of the most popular yet obscure texts in the English Canon. Because Carroll and MacDonald are often credited with pioneering much of their genres — Nonsense Literature and Fantasy Literature — it seems that often they are labeled as originators, and not as active contributing members of a much larger literary tradition. Carroll and MacDonald were close friends and literary confidants, using each other’s works, as well as employing that of other writers. This is a study of the sources Carroll and MacDonald used in an attempt to better understand the underlying meanings and symbols in some of their works. For example, I study the analogous symbols they utilized, along with the words used to express them, to convey their ideas about identity and metamorphosis. I show that they rely on ancient, complex symbols, and the traditional language and meanings associated with them, to communicate deeply embedded messages to their readers. They employ the symbols of the worm, the chrysalis, and the butterfly, in several different guises, in their complex works. It is these symbols that allowed them to elucidate the concepts of the individual’s initial materialist state, followed by the midway period of dreaming/reflecting, and the subsequent spiritual awakening. The analysis of the literary sources they used helps to uncover symbols and themes of interest for Carroll and MacDonald, which in turn help to expose other of their sources, such as the Bestiaries, biblical stories, and the works of Isaac Watts, and William Blake. I attempt to explain how some of these symbols and themes function in the portrayal of coherent, yet creative, meanings in Carroll’s ‘Nonsense’ and MacDonald’s Fantasy.

British Children’s Literature has a long and distinguished history. In fact it could be argued that in the late seventeenth and increasingly in the eighteenth century, Britain took the lead in developing a new kind of literature especially designed for children. The Puritans were the first to recognise the potential for material specifically targeted at children as a means of reforming the personal piety of all individuals, including children. As a result, educational, instructional and religious books for children began to appear followed later by books retelling myths, legends and oral tales and later again books intended to entertain and engage children at all stages of their development. Included as part of British Children’s Literature was the work of Scottish authors. Indeed writers such as Sir Walter Scott, George MacDonald and J.M Barrie produced works that have since become Children’s Literature classics and they themselves had significant influence on diverse children’s authors including writers such as Lewis Carroll and C.S.Lewis. Though the work of Scottish authors was included in British Children’s Literature, it was not recognised specifically for its distinctively Scottish elements. In fact, increasingly from the nineteenth century, it began to be labelled as ‘English’ Children’s Literature even though it meant ‘British’. Scotland had been a separate nation until the Act of Union in 1707. After that, even as a ‘stateless nation’, Scotland retained its own education system, its own legal system and its own national church. Scottish Literature continued to flourish during this period making use of English and Scots language, as well as Gaelic, to produce an illustrious and influential literature of world renown. As Roderick Watson has observed, “the main ‘state’ left to a ‘stateless nation’ may well be its state of mind, and in that territory it is literature that maps the land.” (Watson, 1995: xxxi) Since devolution in 1997, Scotland’s literature sector has undergone an unprecedented period of rapid, sustained and dramatic expansion, a process paralleled by the growing profile of Scottish writers internationally. During the same period Scottish Children’s Literature and Scottish children’s writers have not received the same attention, though their progress has been just as significant. In the year 2000 the Modern Language Association of America recognised Scottish Literature as a national literature, and presumably Scottish Children’s Literature is included as part of that, but it was not specifically highlighted. Even up until 2006, Scottish Children’s Literature was not generally included or even mentioned in Scottish Literature anthologies or histories of Scottish Literature. When in January 2006 the Scottish Executive unveiled Scotland’s Culture, its new cultural policy, it gave Scottish Literature a prominent place. At the same time this document also acknowledged the importance of education in giving access to and highlighting Scotland’s literary heritage. It became all the more important then to recognise the existence of a corpus of work that is recognisable as Scottish Children’s Literature existing separately from but complementary to English Children’s literature and which could be used in schools by teachers and read by children in order to explore and interrogate their own cultural history and identity. This thesis seeks to investigate whether a distinctive Scottish Children’s Literature exists and, if so, to identify those aspects that make it distinctive. Further, if Scottish Children’s Literature exists, how does it become a repository for the formation of culture, identity and nationhood and how does this impact on young Scottish readers? In order to carry out this investigation the study adopts an integrated, humanistic and multi-dimensional approach towards Scottish Children’s fiction. It draws selectively and discursively on theories of reading, reader response and close reading skills for heuristic purposes; that is, on methods that further the overall hermeneutical task of enlarging understanding of the phenomenon, though no particular theoretical approach to analysis has been privileged over another. It draws on a range of overarching theoretical perspectives that work effectively in illuminating the characteristics of particular texts with and for readers. As such, the study does not pretend to provide a specific theoretical basis for the reading of Scottish Children’s Fiction. The approach adopted requires an immersion in the narratives, making unfamiliar texts familiar in order to do the work of projecting a distinctive Scottish perspective. Given that this study is among the first of its kind, it provides a base-line for others to apply specific theoretical filters to Scottish Children’s Literature for further study. Using what cultural typology and the semiotics of culture would recognise as a retrospective approach, this study intends to identify children’s texts that are recognisably Scottish and which may be considered to form a corpus of work which can be celebrated as a central part of Scottish Children’s Literature. WATSON, R. (1995) The Poetry of Scotland, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.

This study is an examination of the hero image in the work of G.A. Henty (1832-1902) and George MacDonald (1824-1905) and a reassessment of the hitherto oppositional critiques of their writing. The argument driving the reassessment is that their writing is not oppositional but is complementary and that the ideology embedded in their work is communicated through the character of the hero through genre and through their interpretation of their historical period. The central hypothesis is that the reflexive characteristics of the hero image demonstrate a complete identity commensurate with the hero figure of the Victorian ideal. This hypothesis is demonstrated through the analysis of chosen texts from the work of Henty and MacDonald categorised by critics as written for children and by the application of ethical, genre and new historic theory. The relationship between the expansion of the British Empire and youthful heroism is established through investigation of the Victorian political, social and religious milieu, the construct of the child and the construct of the hero. The connection between the exotic geographical space of empire and the unknown psychological space is conducted through examination of the representation of the ‘other' in the work of Henty and MacDonald. The study demonstrates that Henty’s work is more complex than the stereotypically linear, masculine, imperialistic critique of his stories as historical realism allows and that MacDonald’s work displays more evidence of historical embedding and ideological interpellation than the critical focus on his work as fantasy and fairy tale considers. The contribution of this study to existing research on Henty and MacDonald is firstly by an examination of the ideology embedded in the construct of the hero figure as this construct impacted Victorian culture and secondly by reassessing the existing criticism of their work. Greater understanding of the effect of this heroic ideal on nineteenth century society leads to a greater understanding of the implications for subsequent cultures including that of the twenty first century. This aspect is examined in relation to the current reprinting programmes for Henty and MacDonald and is proposed as a subject for continued research.

This literary study presents an analysis of literary constructs of African American childhood in the 1930s in American children’s literature. The purpose for such a study is to determine, identify, and analyse the constructions of African American childhood offered in such books. The critical approach employed involves theories based in post structuralism and post colonialism. The literary constructions of African American childhood are influenced by the society in which they were produced; hence this thesis includes a contextualisation of the historical time period in relationship to the works discussed. Furthermore, this thesis considers constructions offered through illustration in equal terms with textual constructions. Representations of African American childhood are also presented through the use of dialect. The position adopted considers dialect as African American patois since such written dialect is pre-proscriptive African American Vernacular English rules. Analysis has been carried out of the ways in which language written in African American patois constructed African American childhood rather than focusing on the linguistic aspects of the written dialect. Finally, four key texts, all written after 1965 and set in the 1930s have been evaluated: Sounder (1970) by William Armstrong, Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry (1976) by Mildred Taylor, Tar Beach (1991) by Faith Ringgold, and Leon’s Story (1997) by Susan Roth. These contemporary writers offered a different view of the 1930s since they are ‘writing back’ into the previously assumed stereotypes. In conclusion, this thesis demonstrates that in the 1930s, positive progression was achieved, bridging ideologies concerning the African American community fostered in the Harlem Renaissance and the search for African American identity for children and adults. While negative stereotypes established before the 1930s were included in some publications, defiance of mainstream views, resistance to overt racism, and a complication of representation of African American childhood is present in American children’s literature in the 1930s.