Psychoanalysis Responses to Children's Literture

With the growing emphasis on theory in literary studies, psychoanalytic criticism has taken its place alongside other forms as an important contribution to literary interpretation. Despite its tendency to make readers uncomfortable, it offers insights into human nature, and hence is appropriate in examining a genre such as children's literature. Sixteen chapters in this work explore the psychological subtexts of a number of important children's books, including Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy, Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, and E.B. White's Charlotte's Web. While most of the analyses deal primarily with the psychological development of characters, some focus on the lives of authors and illustrators, such as Beatrix Potter and Jessie Willcox Smith. Other chapters analyze the various responses that readers have to children’s books. Understandable and interesting for both scholars and general readers, this work draws on the ideas of such psychoanalytic theorists as Sigmund Freud, Alice Miller, D.W. Winnicott and Jacques Lacan.

Lucy Rollin is professor emerita of English at Clemson University, where she taught children's and young adult literature. She has written many books and essays on children's literature and pop culture. Mark I. West is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he teaches children's literature and coordinates the American Studies program. He has written or edited a number of books dealing with children's literature, and is vice-president/president-elect of the Children's Literature Association.