The Routledge Companion to Children's Literature and Culture

Focusing on significant and cutting-edge preoccupations within childrens literature scholarship, The Routledge Companion to Childrens Literature and Culture presents a comprehensive overview of print, digital, and electronic texts for children aged zero to thirteen as forms of world literature participating in a panoply of identity formations. Offering five distinct sections, this volume: Familiarizes students and beginning scholars with key concepts and methodological resources guiding contemporary inquiry into childrens literature Describes the major media formats and genres for texts expressly addressing children Considers the production, distribution, and valuing of childrens books from an assortment of historical and contemporary perspectives, highlighting context as a driver of content Maps how childrens texts have historically presumed and prescribed certain identities on the part of their readers, sometimes addressing readers who share some part of the authors identity, sometimes seeking to educate the reader about a presumed other, and in recent decades increasingly foregrounding identities once lacking visibility and voice Explores the historical evolutions and trans-regional contacts and (inter)connections in the long process of the formation of global childrens literature, highlighting issues such as retranslation, transnationalism, transculturality, and new digital formats for considering cultural crossings and renegotiations in the production of childrens literature Methodically presented and contextualized, this volume is an engaging introduction to this expanding and multifaceted field.