Ethics in British Children's Literature
Subtitle: Unexamined Life
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc; Bloomsbury Academic
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9781441139832
Subjects: Children's literature, history and criticism; English literature, history and criticism, 20th century; Ethics in literature
Description: Featuring close readings of selected poetry, visual texts, short stories and novels published for children since 1945, from Naughty Amelia Jane to Watership Down, this is the first extensive study of the nature and form of ethical discourse in British children's literature. Ethics in British Children's Literature explores the extent to which contemporary writing for children might be considered philosophical, tackling ethical spheres relevant to and arising from books for young people, such as naughtiness, good and evil, family life and environmental ethics. Rigorously engaging with influential moral philosophers, from Aristotle, through Kant and Hegel, to Arno Leopold, Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley and Lars Svendsen, this book demonstrates the narrative strategies employed to engage young readers as moral agents.