Suffer the Little Children : Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children's Literature / Jodi Eichler-Levine.
2013
PS490 .E37 2016
Linked e-resources
Linked Resource
Details
Title
Suffer the Little Children : Uses of the Past in Jewish and African American Children's Literature / Jodi Eichler-Levine.
ISBN
9780814724002
Published
New York, NY : : New York University Press, [2013]
Copyright
©2013
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource : 9 black and white illustrations
Item Number
10.18574/nyu/9780814722992.001.0001 doi
Call Number
PS490 .E37 2016
Dewey Decimal Classification
810.99282
Summary
Thiscompelling work examines classic and contemporary Jewish and African Americanchildren's literature. Through close readings of selected titles publishedsince 1945, Jodi Eichler-Levine analyzes what is at stake in portraying religioushistory for young people, particularly when the histories in question aretraumatic ones. In the wake of the Holocaust and lynchings, of the MiddlePassage and flight from Eastern Europe's pogroms, children's literatureprovides diverse and complicated responses to the challenge of representing difficultcollective pasts.In readingthe work of various prominent authors, including Maurice Sendak, Julius Lester,Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, and Virginia Hamilton, Eichler-Levine changes ourunderstanding of North American religions. She illuminates how narratives ofboth suffering and nostalgia graft future citizens into ideals of Americanliberal democracy, and into religious communities that can be understoodaccording to recognizable notions of reading, domestic respectability, andnational sacrifice. Ifchildren are the idealized recipients of the past, what does it mean to telltales of suffering to children, and can we imagine modes of memory that movepast utopian notions of children as our future? Suffer the Little Childrenasks readers to alter their worldviews about children's literature as an"innocent" enterprise, revisiting the genre in a darker and more unsettledlight.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 18. Sep 2023)
Series
North American Religions ; ; 4
Available in Other Form
print 9780814722992
Linked Resources
Record Appears in
Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
A Word about Language
1. Remembering the Way into Membership
Part I: Crossing and Dwelling
Afterlives of Moses and Miriam
2. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus
3. Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia
Part II: Binding and Unbinding
Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah's Daughter
4. Bound to Violence
5. Unbound in Fantasy
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
A Word about Language
1. Remembering the Way into Membership
Part I: Crossing and Dwelling
Afterlives of Moses and Miriam
2. The Unbearable Lightness of Exodus
3. Dwelling in Chosen Nostalgia
Part II: Binding and Unbinding
Hauntings of Isaac and Jephthah's Daughter
4. Bound to Violence
5. Unbound in Fantasy
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author