en es en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en es en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en
‘As long as there are ponies in them…I don’t mind how many adventures I have. Somehow when you’ve got ponies you always have adventures.’ Ruby Ferguson, Jill and the Perfect Pony
‘I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.’ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
The body of the horse is fraught with competing anxieties. Associated with elitism on the one-hand and labour on the other, it is both a beast of burden and a symbolic site of freedom and natural power. The wide-ranging and often competing associations of the horse make it a vibrant imaginative symbol. It is perhaps telling that the most famous – although certainly not the earliest – animal autobiography is that narrated ‘from the original equine’ by Anna Sewell. The fantasy of ‘knowing the horse’, of being able to speak to it and for it, is powerfully evocative. That Black Beauty itself is as invested in issues of gender, class and social reform as it is in issues of animal husbandry speaks to the complex associations and cultural anxieties that surround narratives of the horse.
300 word proposals for 20-minute papers should be submitted by no later than February 5, 2016. For more information, or to submit a proposal, please contact the conference organizers, Dr Georgie Horrell (gah27@cam.ac.uk) and Dr Zoe Jacques (zj216@cam.ac.uk). Invited speakers include much celebrated and prolific writer of equine fiction K.M Peyton (Flambards), Meg Rosoff (The Bride’s Farewell and How I Live Now), Jane Badger (Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children’s Fiction) and Susanna Forrest (If Wishes Were Horses: a Memoir of Equine Obsession).
Nordic Noir in Children’s Crime: from Tam Sventon to Salla Simukka
The Nordic detective story aimed at adults is a modern international success. However, acclaimed writers such as Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell and Jo Nesbø are all part of a long tradition. Written in the 1970’s, Sjöwall & Wahlöö’s crime novels have since given rise to an abundance of crime series and films in the same vein of social realism and social criticism, as well as inspired recent detective dramas like the Beck films and The Bridge.
The detective story has also blossomed within children’s and YA fiction in recent decades, resulting in successful exports such as Martin Widmark and Helena Willis’s The Whodunit Detective Agency series and Salla Simukka’s The Snow White Trilogy.
Against this background, the Nordic detective story written for children and youth raises interesting questions. How has the genre developed and diversified over time, from Tam Sventon and Bill Bergson to Salla Simukka’s dark stories? Can Nordic crime writers writing for a young audience be included in the international Nordic Noir success? To what extent are these books translated and do they sell? Moreover, can the tradition of social criticism characterizing many adult crime novels be traced in detective stories written for children and youth?
Interestingly, it sometimes proves more fruitful to talk about suspense plots rather than detective stories when it comes to children’s and YA literature. Works written for very young children often revolve around solving mysteries rather than crimes. Similarly, YA works tend to focus on self-understanding and existential questions rather than the exposure of a criminal, even when a crime has been committed. Genres are often mixed: the detective plot can for example be combined with fantasy or humour. When it comes to middle readers, the detective story is a dominating genre, presented in every conceivable form and style. It can be structured as a (potentially) never-ending series in the spirit of Enid Blyton – Mårten Sandén’s The Petrini Detectives is an example of this – or as a completed series, or (less commonly) as a single book.
Barnboken – Journal of Children’s Literature Research now welcomes articles on the topic “Nordic Noir in Children’s Crime: from Tam Sventon to Salla Simukka.” The purpose of the topic is to identify, describe and analyse different detective and crime descriptions in children’s and YA fiction from different perspectives.
Deadline, abstracts: 1 December 2015
Please send a 300-word proposal to barnboken@sbi.kb.se. The following information should be included:
The title of the article, the name of the writer, affiliation and e-mail address.
Deadline, articles: 3 April 2016
The articles will be published in 2016. Articles submitted for consideration may not have been previously published or presented in any other context.
Texts are sent via e-mail to barnboken@sbi.kb.se or via the login system on this website. See Author Guidelines for further information on submission details such as length.
Sensuality, sensibility and sexuality may not be words we normally associate with Nordic children’s and YA literature. However, a closer examination reveals that this literature, in everything from picturebooks to YA novels, repeatedly returns to depictions of sensuality or sexuality, as though intimate stories and the cartography of feelings belonged to the core of children’s fiction. Openness in terms of nudity and sexuality is also associated with the idea of the Nordic. We often hear of books being censored when introduced to an international market. For example, the boy Garmann who is not allowed to pee outdoors in Stian Hole’s picturebook Garmann’s Summer (2006).
Just like the instructive 1970’s picturebooks explaining bodily functions, Stina Wirsén’s inclusion of adult intercourse in her baby book Vem sover inte? (“Who Can’t Sleep?”, 2009) reflects a modern approach to children and childhood in relation to sensibility and sexuality. Naturally, sexuality is an especially popular topic in the YA novel, where Hans-Eric Hellberg’s Kram (“Hug”) series has been succeeded by Mårten Melin and Katerina Janouch. Their works are, however, mild compared to Maria Marcus’s Alle tiders forår! (“What A Spring!”, 1977), where Ulla masturbates using a vibrator and even teaches her mother how to use one.
While today’s YA novel is just as open-minded and charged in its sex depictions as the YA novels of the 1970’s, it also emphasizes sensuality and touch. When it comes to younger children’s sexuality, the lines are often stricter. In stories written for younger children, sexuality is often interpreted in terms of sensations and sensibility.
In Proggiga barnböcker (“Progg Children’s Books”, 2010), Kalle Lind draws attention to the Swedish children’s book of the 1970’s and its central role in the sexual revolution. However, there are still questions left to discuss. How does the pedophile debate of the 1980’s affect the limits of the children’s book in terms of body and sensation? Is the children’s book liberated or prudish? Have instructive films about vaginas and penises influenced how children’s books depict and describe children’s bodies?
World Health Organization (WHO) considers sexuality an integral part of being human, “a basic need and an aspect of being human inseparable from other life aspects”. WHO stresses that this does not only concern men and women, but also children. Does the Nordic children’s book reflect a similar notion? Or does it perhaps convey contrasting views? And where is the sensuality in children’s books?
Barnboken – Journal of Children’s Literature Research welcomes articles on the topic “Sensuality, Sensibility and Sexuality”. The intention is to examine Nordic children’s and YA writers’ approach to issues related to this topic.
Deadline, abstracts: 17 January 2016
Please send a 300-word proposal to barnboken@sbi.kb.se. The following information should be included: The title of the article, the name of the writer, affiliation and e-mail address.
Deadline, articles: 16 May 2016
The articles will be published in 2016. Articles submitted for consideration may not have been previously published or presented in any other context.
Texts are sent via e-mail to barnboken@sbi.kb.se or via the login system on this website. See Author Guidelines for further information on submission details such as length.
Barnboken – Journal of Children’s Literature Research is published by The Swedish Institute for Children’s Books. All articles accepted have been peer reviewed by at least two peers and will be published online under an Open Access model. The main language of the journal is Swedish, but articles written in Danish, Norwegian and English are also welcome. We are especially interested in contributions related to Sweden or the Nordic countries.
The editorial committee consists of Professor Björn Sundmark, Malmö University, Sweden, Dr. Åsa Warnqvist, The Swedish Institute for Children’s Books, Sweden (Editor), and Associate professor Mia Österlund, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Barnboken is published with financial support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet).
A guide to our reference and note system can be found at the journal website: www.barnboken.net.
Posted in calls for papers
Lecturer in English Literature at Anglia Ruskin University
Posted on November 16, 2015 by admin
Lecturer in English Literature
Faculty/Support Service: Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences
Salary: £31,656 – £36,672 p.a.
Closing Date – 9 December 2015
About Anglia Ruskin University:
Our vibrant, modern University is gaining prominence both nationally and internationally and we have ambitious plans for our future. Our main campuses in the cities of Cambridge, Chelmsford and Peterborough have been transformed with major capital investments. With an annual turnover of £200m and over 38,000 students, we are a major force for higher education in the East of England.
Our Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences provides cutting-edge teaching, research and consultancy across a broad spectrum of practice-based and theoretical disciplines. We’re committed to the mutual importance of teaching and research and have shaped our curriculum to ensure that traditional disciplines retain a clear, academic identity that translates effectively into courses with professional relevance.
We’re seeking a committed Lecturer in English Literature to join our thriving English Literature course group, which recruits at undergraduate and postgraduate levels (with 70 PhD students currently registered in the department). English literature at Anglia Ruskin has a distinguished history, with RAE/REF submissions dating back to 1996. In the most recent REF, 65% of our outputs were rated 3* or 4*. We seek an ambitious colleague to help us improve our research profile further for REF2020. We’re equally enthusiastic about excellent teaching and seek to maintain our high levels of student satisfaction.
With a PhD or Professional Doctorate or nearing completion you’ll have proven experience in teaching English modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. With a research profile commensurate with the stage of your career, you’ll make a substantial contribution to the thriving research profile of the group, including income generation and the supervision of research students.
We particularly welcome a research interest in seventeenth-century literature or children’s literature.
For an informal discussion, please contact Farah Mendlesohn Head of Department of English & Media at farah.mendlesohn@anglia.ac.uk.
For more information and to apply, go to the position webpage.
Posted in positions and postings
CFP – Special Issue of Bookbird: Children’s Literature from New Zealand, Australia and Oceania
Posted on November 10, 2015 by admin
Children’s Literature from New Zealand, Australia and Oceania
Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature invites contributions for a special issue exploring Children’s Literature from New Zealand, Australia and Oceania. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
Local literature and global genres – is there an Oceanic Children’s Gothic? A Pasifika school story?
Landscape and the construction of a child’s world
Books and digital media in children’s lives in New Zealand, Australia and Oceania
Myths and legends and their adaptations
Indigenous cultures and national literatures
Children’s literature in indigenous languages
Children’s literature by and about migrants and refugees in New Zealand, Australia and Oceania
Children’s literature as pastoral in an Oceanic context
Settler legacies on children’s literature in New Zealand and Australia
New Zealand, Australian and Oceanic literature in the context of “The Global South”
Full papers should be submitted to the editor, Björn Sundmark (bjorn.sundmark@mah.se), and guest editor, Anna Jackson (anna.jackson@vuw.ac.nz) by 1 April. Please see Bookbird’s website at www.ibby.org/bookbird for full submission details. Papers which are not accepted for this issue will be considered for later issues of Bookbird.
Posted in calls for papers
CFP – Special Issue of Bookbird: “Another Children’s Literature”: Writing by Children and Youth
Posted on November 10, 2015 by admin
“Another Children’s Literature”: Writing by Children and Youth
Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature invites contributions for a special issue on “another children’s literature”—one created by children and youth themselves.
Usually, “children’s literature” has been assumed to be literature written by adults for children. In this issue, however, we intend to focus on literature created by children and youth. While there has been some critical attention to the juvenilia of canonical authors and considerable educational and psychological interest in what children’s writing reveals about children, comparatively little attention has been paid to the literary dimensions of—and theoretical issues raised by—children’s and youths’ writing.
In the Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature (2010), Evelyn Arizpe and Morag Styles with Abigail Rokison consider writing by children a “neglected dimension of children’s literature and its scholarship,” wondering “whether children’s writing can be considered ‘literature’” and even whether children’s writing is “a genre in itself”: they conclude that “a serious study of children’s writing as literature is still to be written.”
This special issue on “another children’s literature,” recognizing with Juliet McMaster that “literature by children is a different matter from literature for children,” hopes to undo some of that neglect of literature written by children and youth. As David Rudd writes, “It might still be argued that unlike women and other minority groups, children still have no voice, their literature being created for them, rather than creating their own. But this is nonsense. Children produce literature in vast quantities.”
Topics for papers might include, but are not limited to:
exceptional cases of important texts published by writers before they were adults, including both contemporary and earlier texts written by children and youth
publication (and obstacles to publication) of children’s and youths’ creative writing, including submissions to writing contests and literary anthologies in magazines and books
adult mediation, including censorship, of child- and youth-authored texts
in addition to fiction and non-fiction, drama, poetry, and song lyrics written by children and youth
collaborative writings of children and youth with adults
children’s and youths’ online “writing,” including blogging and fan fiction
potentially distinctive characteristics of writing by children and youth, including narratology, representation, plot, mode, language play, characterization, focalization, closure, or intertextuality
Full papers should be submitted to the editor, Björn Sundmark (bjorn.sundmark@mah.se) and guest editor, Peter E. Cumming (cummingp@yorku.ca) by 1 July 2016.
Please see Bookbird’s submission guidelines for full submission details. Papers that are not accepted for this issue will be considered for later issues of Bookbird.
Posted in calls for papers
IRSCL Book Award 2022- Applications open
Open Position: Assistant Professor in Global/Transnational Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies