Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2020

Literary Cultures and Twenty-First-Century Childhoods

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Part of a series of books which trace the changes in the way that the figure of the 'child' has been represented in literary cultures across the ages
  • Takes broad definition of the term 'literary cultures' and how they intersect with digital, film, graphic narrative, comics, advertising, and other formats
  • Features contributions from a broad range of academics across various disciplines

Part of the book series: Literary Cultures and Childhoods (LICUCH)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. Social Justice and Diversitydiversity in Literature for Young Readersgenreyoung readers

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 81-81
  3. Representing Youth, Claiming Identity, and Exercising Agency

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139
  4. Coming of Age in the Anthropocene

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207
    2. Animals in Children’s Development

      • Gail F. Melson
      Pages 209-233
  5. Back Matter

    Pages 267-279

About this book

In the early decades of the twenty-first century, we are grappling with the legacies

of past centuries and their cascading effects upon children and all people. We

realize anew how imperialism, globalization, industrialization, and revolution

continue to reshape our world and that of new generations. At a volatile moment,

this collection asks how twenty-first century literature and related media

represent and shape the contemporary child, childhood, and youth.


Because literary representations construct ideal childhoods as well as model the

rights, privileges, and respect afforded to actual young people, this collection

surveys examples from popular culture and from scholarly practice. Chapters

investigate the human rights of children in literature and international policy; the

potential subjective agency and power of the child; the role models proposed for

young people; the diverse identities children embody and encounter; and the

environmental well-being of future human and nonhuman generations.


As a snapshot of our developing historical moment, this collection identifies

emergent trends, considers theories and critiques of childhood and literature,

and observes how new technologies and paradigms are destabilizing past

conventions of storytelling and lived experience.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, USA

    Nathalie op de Beeck

About the editor

Nathalie op de Beeck is the author of Suspended Animation: Children’s Picture

Books and the Fairy Tale of Modernity (2010) and co-creator of Little Machinery:

A Critical Facsimile Edition (2009). Her work appears in The Oxford Handbook of

Children’s Literature (2011), The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks (2017),

and journals including CLAQ and CLE. She is Associate Professor of English at

Pacific Lutheran University, USA.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access