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Critical Children: The Use of Childhood in Ten Great Novels
Richard Locke
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Description for Critical Children: The Use of Childhood in Ten Great Novels
Hardback. Num Pages: 232 pages, ill. BIC Classification: 2AB; DSBF; DSBH; DSK. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 229 x 152 x 25. Weight in Grams: 458. The Use of Childhood in Ten Great Novels. 232 pages, ill. Cateogry: (P) Professional & Vocational. BIC Classification: 2AB; DSBF; DSBH; DSK. Dimension: 234 x 156 x 21. Weight: 458.
The ten novels explored in Critical Children portray children so vividly that their names are instantly recognizable. Richard Locke traces the 130-year evolution of these iconic child characters, moving from Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and Pip in Great Expectations to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn; from Miles and Flora in The Turn of the Screw to Peter Pan and his modern American descendant, Holden Caulfield; and finally to Lolita and Alexander Portnoy. "It's remarkable," writes Locke, "that so many classic (or, let's say, unforgotten) English and American novels should focus on children and adolescents not as colorful minor characters but as the intense center of attention." Despite many differences of style, setting, and structure, they all enlist a particular child's story in a larger cultural narrative. In Critical Children, Locke describes the ways the children in these novels have been used to explore and evade large social, psychological, and moral problems. Writing as an editor, teacher, critic, and essayist, Locke demonstrates the way these great novels work, how they spring to life from their details, and how they both invite and resist interpretation and provoke rereading. Locke conveys the variety and continued vitality of these books as they shift from Victorian moral allegory to New York comic psychoanalytic monologue, from a child who is an agent of redemption to one who is a narcissistic prisoner of guilt and proud rage.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2011
Publisher
Columbia University Press
Condition
New
Number of Pages
232
Place of Publication
New York, United States
ISBN
9780231157827
SKU
V9780231157827
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15
About Richard Locke
Richard Locke is professor of writing at the Columbia University School of the Arts, and his essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, The American Scholar, The Threepenny Review, The Yale Review, and other publications. He has been editor in chief of Vanity Fair and deputy editor of the New York Times Book Review.
Reviews for Critical Children: The Use of Childhood in Ten Great Novels
Using the portrayal of childhood as his eye-opening theme and total immersion as his critical method, Richard Locke brilliantly reexamines classic novels we complacently thought we understood. He enlarges and freshens our insight into modern works by Salinger, Nabokov, and Philip Roth by placing them in a line that reaches back to masterpieces by Dickens and Twain. This is an intense, subtle, elegantly written, and exceptionally illuminating work.
Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression Deep, acute, skillful, responsive, and determined to get into these ten famous novels whose exteriors are so glistening, Richard Locke's Critical Children is a major instance of active literary criticism in our moment.
Richard Howard, author of Without Saying Richard Locke succeeds in giving a fresh mythic quality to the prismlike insights of Dickens, Twain, James, Barrie, Salinger, Nabokov, and Roth (with a nod to the other Roth, Henry)... His chapters on Dickens and Barrie are outstanding; and Locke may be the first to detect the effect of seventeenth-century scholar Sir Thomas Browne on Holden Caulfield. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Richard Locke has done a remarkable job. His criticism operates at a very high level of engagement with the text, pulling into play a wide range of associations and intellectual focus that is rare and exhilarating.
Jay Parini, author of Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America Critical Children is a fine example of literary criticism at its most sensitive and probing and hearteningly reminds us that the criticism of fiction is still possible and worth doing.
William H. Pritchard, author of Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered Brilliant... Everyone... will be affected by Locke's love for the works he discusses. His commentary sends you rushing back to the original novels, eager to reread them and do your own interpreting. Irish Times incisive and entertaining...
Frank Cottrell Boyce Wall Street Journal While remaining sensitive to the historical and cultural specificity of texts, Locke celebrates these novels; he subjects character to the closest of close readings; he immerses himself and revels in the words on the page.
Amber K. Regis Times Literary Supplement Highly recommended. Choice a profoundly thoughtful and engaging addition to the field of American and English literary studies. Years Work in English Studies
Morris Dickstein, author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression Deep, acute, skillful, responsive, and determined to get into these ten famous novels whose exteriors are so glistening, Richard Locke's Critical Children is a major instance of active literary criticism in our moment.
Richard Howard, author of Without Saying Richard Locke succeeds in giving a fresh mythic quality to the prismlike insights of Dickens, Twain, James, Barrie, Salinger, Nabokov, and Roth (with a nod to the other Roth, Henry)... His chapters on Dickens and Barrie are outstanding; and Locke may be the first to detect the effect of seventeenth-century scholar Sir Thomas Browne on Holden Caulfield. Publishers Weekly (starred review) Richard Locke has done a remarkable job. His criticism operates at a very high level of engagement with the text, pulling into play a wide range of associations and intellectual focus that is rare and exhilarating.
Jay Parini, author of Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America Critical Children is a fine example of literary criticism at its most sensitive and probing and hearteningly reminds us that the criticism of fiction is still possible and worth doing.
William H. Pritchard, author of Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered Brilliant... Everyone... will be affected by Locke's love for the works he discusses. His commentary sends you rushing back to the original novels, eager to reread them and do your own interpreting. Irish Times incisive and entertaining...
Frank Cottrell Boyce Wall Street Journal While remaining sensitive to the historical and cultural specificity of texts, Locke celebrates these novels; he subjects character to the closest of close readings; he immerses himself and revels in the words on the page.
Amber K. Regis Times Literary Supplement Highly recommended. Choice a profoundly thoughtful and engaging addition to the field of American and English literary studies. Years Work in English Studies