Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children's Literature

Bringing together childrens literature scholars from China and the United States, this collection provides an introduction to the scope and goals of a field characterized by active but also distinctive scholarship in two countries with very different rhetorical traditions. The volumes five sections highlight the differences between and overlapping concerns of Chinese and American scholars, as they examine childrens literature with respect to cultural metaphors and motifs, historical movements, authorship, didacticism, important themes, and the current status of and future directions for literature and criticism. Wide-ranging and admirably ambitious in its encouragement of communication between scholars from two major nations, Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Childrens Literature serves as a model for examining how and why childrens literature, more than many literary forms, circulates internationally.