Stories and Society

Children's literature is increasingly exposed to critical debate in England and America, not only among teachers and librarians, but also among students training to teach, a growing number of students of literature who regard children's books as part of the same tradition, and, more recently, among students of popular culture. Though there are a number of histories and surveys of children's literature, and many monographs on individual authors, some of which seek to relate their material to its social background, few works exist which discuss the contexts, ideologies and narrative structures of children's stories in a serious and detailed manner, or examine particular case histories to see how the different forces interact. This is what this collection of essays attempts to do. The topics range from Little Women to Winnie-the-Pooh and from story forms such as "The Adventure Story" to "Fantasy."