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| Critical Children: The Use of Childhood in Ten Great Novels
ISBN: 9780231527996
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Columbia University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Children in literature; American fiction -- History and criticism; English fiction -- History and criticism;
The title is meant to be taken in several ways exemplifying the multifaceted approach Locke takes in this crackling tour of 10 iconic Anglo-American fictions. All feature children caught in challenging or ambiguous circumstances, among them Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Peter Pan, Holden Caulfield, Dolores Haze (aka Lolita), and Alexander Portnoy. Through these children, their creators tackle the hypocritical elements of their respective times, from the 1830s to the 1960s, and these characters, says Locke, are intended as a moral compass. 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). For the most part, the chapters flow into one another. Though a hint of the academic-survey element is detected, thankfully Locke does not feel compelled to subtract from his mission by overjustifying his slim selection of young characters caught in violent situations. His chapters on Dickens and Barrie are outstanding; and Locke may be the first to detect the effect of 17th-century scholar Sir Thomas Browne on Holden Caulfield. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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 . |
