The Possibilities Of Children's Literature: A Rhetoric-oriented Approach To Juvenile Texts

Abstract

This rhetoric-oriented dissertation examines the academic discussion of children's literature, especially the influence of Jacqueline Rose and her landmark book The Case of Peter Pan, or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction (1984). The implications of Rose's claim is that an entire school of interpretation within children's literature scholarship arose that began to (1) question (tacitly or overtly) whether it was possible for adult writers to really compose texts for children and (2) even suggest that the literature is something similar to a subversion and even exploitation of a child reader. This dissertation seeks to reopen the issue that Rose first drew attention to, which is that in addition to the intended child-reader, stories for children must also consciously address an adult reader. In effect, each author for children has a `two-headed reader' for her story, two heads with different expectations and desires. In this dissertation, I hope to show how such seeming tension between these two readers is frequently resolved by authors such as C.S. Lewis, who offers his own theory of children's literature that coincides and rivals Rose's own framework. Finally, this dissertation makes the case for the possibility of children's literature that is supported by the earlier theory of children's fiction suggested by Lewis and by returning to the widening canon of rhetorical criticism as it pertains to literature. Lewis and rhetorical criticism provides a fresh insight into children's fiction.