A significant body of scholarship examines the production of children's
literature by women and minorities, as well as the representation of
gender, race, and sexuality. But few scholars have previously analyzed
class in children's literature. This definitive collection remedies that
by defining and exemplifying historical materialist approaches to
children's literature. The introduction of Little Red Readings lucidly
discusses characteristics of historical materialism, the methodological
approach to the study of literature and culture first outlined by Karl
Marx, defining key concepts and analyzing factors that have marginalized
this tradition, particularly in the United States.
The thirteen essays here analyze a wide range of texts--from children's
bibles to Mary Poppins to The Hunger Games--using concepts in
historical materialism from class struggle to the commodity. Essayists
apply the work of Marxist theorists such as Ernst Bloch and Fredric
Jameson to children's literature and film. Others examine the work of
leftist writers in India, Germany, England, and the United States.
The authors argue that historical materialist methodology is critical to
the study of children's literature, as children often suffer most from
inequality. Some of the critics in this collection reveal the ways that
literature for children often functions to naturalize capitalist
economic and social relations. Other critics champion literature that
reveals to readers the construction of social reality and point to texts
that enable an understanding of the role ordinary people might play in
creating a more just future. The collection adds substantially to our
understanding of the political and class character of children's
literature worldwide and contributes to the development of a radical
history of children's literature.
