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- ISBN: 9780415802154 | 0415802156
- Cover: Hardcover
- Copyright: 9/3/2009
The book deals with one of the most controversial aspects of children's and young adult literature: its use as an instrument of power. Children in contemporary Western society are oppressed and powerless. Yet, paradoxically enough, children are allowed, in fiction written by adults for the enlightenment and enjoyment of children, to become strong, brave, rich, powerful, and independent - on certain conditions and for a limited time. The best children's literature offers readers the potential to challenge the authority of adults, and yet at the same time, adult authors, who write for children, use the artistic means, such as the narrative voice and the subject position, to manipulate the child reader. Looking at key works from the eighteenth century to the present Nikolajeva explores topics such as alterity, utopia, dystopia, gender, crossvocalization, species, and images in picture books in order to demonstrate how a balance is maintained between the two opposite inherent goals of children's literature: to empower and to educate the child.