Philosophical Children in Literary Situations

Philosophical Children in Literary Situations: Toward a Phenomenology of Education argues that both phenomenology and childrens literature can assist one another in understanding the lived experience of children. Through careful readings of central figures in the phenomenological tradition, including Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty, Costello introduces both the novice and the scholar to the phenomenological method of describing community, emotion, religion, gender, and lossexperiences that are central to all humans, but especially to the developing child. When turning to literary analysis, Costello uses the phenomenological theory discussed to open up the literary texts of familiar and award-winning childrens chapter books toward new layers of interpretation, reading such novels as To Kill a Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time, and Charlottes Web to participate in ongoing conversations about childhood perception within childrens literature studies and philosophy for children. Scholars of philosophy, education, literary studies, and psychology will find this book particularly useful.