Recent Publications by IRSCL Members

The following books by IRSCL members have been recently published or are forthcoming:

The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature edited by John Stephens (Routledge, September 2017)

Demonstrating the aesthetic, cultural, political, and intellectual diversity of children’s literature across the globe, The Routledge Companion to International Children’s Literature is the first volume of its kind to focus on the undervisited regions of the world. With particular focus on Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the collection raises awareness of children’s literature and related media as they exist in large regions of the world to which ‘mainstream’ European and North American scholarship pays very little attention.

The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer (Routledge, November 2017)

Containing 48 essays by leading and new scholars, this Companion is the ultimate guide to picturebooks. It contains a detailed introduction by the editor, surveying the history and development of the field and emphasising the international and cultural diversity of picturebooks. Divided into 5 key parts the book covers: concepts – from within picturebooks, but also applied from literary theory; genres – from baby books to picturebooks for adults – their relations to other forms such as comics and visual media; domains and theoretical approaches; and adaptations and media.

More Words about Pictures: Current Research on Picture Books and Visual/Verbal Texts for Young People edited by Naomi Hamer, Perry Nodelman, and Mavis Reimer (Routledge)

This volume represents the current state of research on picture books and other adjacent hybrid forms of visual/verbal texts such as comics, graphic novels, and book apps, with a particular focus on texts produced for and about young people. When Perry Nodelman’s Words about Pictures: the Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books was published almost three decades ago, it was greeted as an important contribution to studies in children’s picture books and illustration internationally; and based substantially on it, Nodelman has recently been named the 2015 recipient of the International Grimm Award for children’s literature criticism. In the years since Words About Pictures appeared, scholars have built on Nodelman’s groundbreaking text and have developed a range of other approaches, both to picture books and to newer forms of visual/verbal texts that have entered the marketplace and become popular with young people. The essays in this book offer ‘more words’ about established and emerging forms of picture books, providing an overview of the current state of studies in visual/verbal texts and gathering in one place the work being produced at various locations and across disciplines. Essays exploring areas such as semiological and structural aspects of conventional picture books, graphic narratives and new media forms, and the material and performative cultures of picture books represent current work not only from literary studies but also media studies, art history, ecology, Middle Eastern Studies, library and information studies, and educational research. In addition to work by international scholars including William Moebius, Erica Hateley, Nathalie op de Beeck, and Nina Christensen that carries on and challenges the conclusions of Words about Pictures, the collection also includes a wide-ranging reflection by Perry Nodelman on continuities and changes in the current interdisciplinary field of study of visual/verbal texts for young readers. Providing a look back over the history of picture books and the development of picture book scholarship, More Words About Pictures also offers an overview of our current understanding of these intriguing texts.

Canon Constitution and Canon Change in Children’s Literature edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Anja Müller (Routledge)

This volume focuses on the (de)canonization processes in children’s literature, considering the construction and cultural-historical changes of canons in different children’s literatures. Chapters by international experts in the field explore a wide range of different children’s literatures from Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, Eastern and Central Europe, as well as from Non-European countries such as Australia, Israel, and the United States. Situating the inquiry within larger literary and cultural studies conversations about canonicity, the contributors assess representative authors and works that have encountered changing fates in the course of canon history. Particular emphasis is given to sociological canon theories, which have so far been under-represented in canon research in children’s literature. The volume therefore relates historical changes in the canon of children’s literature not only to historical changes in concepts of childhood but to more encompassing political, social, economic, cultural, and ideological shifts. This volume’s comparative approach takes cognizance of the fact that, if canon formation is an important cultural factor in nation-building processes, a comparative study is essential to assessing transnational processes in canon formation. This book thus renders evident the structural similarities between patterns and strategies of canon formation emerging in different children’s literatures.

Dans les rêves de grand-père by Jean Perrot (Albin Michel)

Jean Perrot quitte sa stature de spécialiste de littérature enfantine et dévoile ici son rôle de grand-père. Avec cet album, il livre à son petit-fils quelques poèmes, jalonnant les étapes de la naissance à l’envol de l’enfant devenu adulte. Attention, étonnement, goût du jeu, inquiétude, admiration… le grand-père dit, en quelques mots, les émotions et les sentiments ressentis sur ce chemin partagé. Des mots pétris d’écoute et de délicatesse, qui se chargent, au fil du temps qui passe, du sens de la vie et qui expriment cet art merveilleux d’être grand-père.

CFP – Special Issue of TEXTURA: Children’s and Young Adult Digital Literature: Apps, Readers and Literary Education

Call for Papers for Special Issue of TEXTURA
Children’s and Young Adult Digital Literature: Apps, Readers and Literary Education
Editors: Edgar Roberto Kirchof, Neus Real, and Cristina Correro

Major changes which digital literature has been generating, as much in the production for children and young adults as in their experiences as readers, place new challenges for literary education. Educators need to know this reality deeply in order to be able to integrate it into the classroom and respond to the social and cultural changes which follow it. The academic journal TEXTURA proposes the publication of a special issue on the theme to contribute to this field, bringing forth reflection and debate. Thus, researchers from international institutions are invited to submit articles which address the following issues:

1) Digital children’s and young adult literature: theory and practice.
2) Literary apps for children and young adults: distinctive features, novelties proposed and potential for literary education (with the possibility of studying specific cultural traditions, i.e., literary apps in a specific language or produced in a specific country).
3) Children’s and young adult digital reading: changes, challenges and continuity.
4) Children and young adult digital literature at school: experiences with children and young adults.

The articles should contain between 30,000 and 50,000 characters in total, including spaces and compulsory elements (title, author, abstract, keywords, full text and references). Articles in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, and German are accepted. Foreign language articles should contain the English translation of the title, abstract and key words. Articles should be sent to the website of the academic journal TEXTURA: http://www.periodicos.ulbra.br/index.php/txra for external evaluation. Deadline: 31 October 2017. The result of external evaluation will be notified in the following two months.

CFP – Girls’ Studies/Girls’ Culture

CFP: Girls’ Studies/Girls’ Culture
Deadline: April 30, 2017

The Girls’ Studies/Girls’ Cultures Area of the Midwest Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association invites proposals for the 2017 MPCA/ACA conference to be held at the Hyatt Regency in St. Louis, MO, October 18-22.

We seek proposals for papers and presentations from graduate students, academics, educators, and activists on girls, girlhoods, girls’ cultures, and the media.

Suggested topics include:

  • media representations of girls, girlhood, girls’ cultures
  • girls as media producers, consumers, and critics
  • girls, politics and activism
  • girls’ organizations
  • girls and work
  • girls, play, and princess cultures
  • transgender girlhood
  • dolls, toys, games
  • fashion and cosmetics
  • girls, friends, and bullies
  • girls, feelings and fantasies
  • girlhood, mental illness, and the media
  • girlhood, education, and vocational training
  • policing girls and girlhood
  • girls, music, dance, and the arts
  • girls, disabilities, and the body
  • shifting definitions of girlhood
  • girls, social media, and digital practices
  • girls, traditional, digital, and media literacy
  • girls, media, and cultural work
  • girls, moral panics, and the media
  • girls and STEM
  • girls and discourses
  • rural girls and media
  • girls, religion, and popular culture
  • girls, intersectionality, and media
  • girls and popular culture methodologies
  • girls, popular culture, and pedagogy
  • girls’ identities and popular culture

Please submit (300-word) abstracts for single papers or full panels (3 to 4 papers max) here: http://submissions.mpcaaca.org by April 30, 2017.

More info about the conference is available here: http://mpcaaca.org/

For questions and queries about the Girls’ Studies/Girls’ Culture Area, please contact Miriam Forman-Brunell: Forman-BrunellM@umkc.edu