Theory for Beginners

Since its inception in the 1970s, the Philosophy for Children movement (P4C) has affirmed childrens literature as important philosophical work. Theory, meanwhile, has invested in childrens classics, especially Lewis Carrolls Alice books, and has also developed a literature for beginners that resembles childrens literature in significant ways. Offering a novel take on this phenomenon, Theory for Beginners explores how philosophy and theory draw on childrens literature and have even come to resemble it in their strategies for cultivating the child and/or the beginner. Examining everything from the rise of French Theory in the United States to the crucial pedagogies offered in childrens picture books, from Alison Bechdels graphic memoir Are You My Mother? and Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events to studies of queer childhood, Kenneth B. Kidd deftly reveals the way in which children may learn from philosophy and vice versa.