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SUMMARY:Remembering\, Rereading\, and Reviewing the Canon: the case of The
  Secret Garden  - Alison Waller\, National Centre for Research in Children
 ’s Literature\, University of Roehampton
DTSTART:20141126T170000Z
DTEND:20141126T183000Z
UID:TALK56035@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lucian Stephenson
DESCRIPTION:In this paper I will explore how reading histories might be us
 ed to reform ideas of canonicity in children’s literature\, through a ca
 se study focusing on gendered response. The figure of the general reader h
 as not always been central to formulations of quality or taste in literatu
 re\, although as early as 1969 Hans Robert Jauss made a claim for a litera
 ry history based on ‘aesthetics of reception’. Even where empirical re
 ader-response theory and reception studies have offered up new ways of int
 errogating the literary canon\, the experiences of child readers have ofte
 n proved illusive. Children’s aesthetic responses are notoriously hard t
 o quantify\, while their reading taste is often guided by the adults aroun
 d them and its impact on the broader cultural imaginary is difficult to as
 sess. Yet one clear method for establishing a canon of children’s litera
 ture is to trace the texts that are best remembered and which continue to 
 have an impact on readers into older age. In this talk\, I set out such a 
 method within the context of an experimental project\, in which adult read
 ers recall significant books from their childhood and review their respons
 es by returning to reread them. I will discuss Frances Hodgson Burnett’s
  The Secret Garden\, asking what happens when this classic example of Brit
 ish ‘girls’ fiction’ is remembered by male readers.\n\n*Biography*\n
 Alison Waller is Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton\, London\
 , where she convenes the MA in Children’s Literature by distance learnin
 g. She is the author of Constructing Adolescence in Fantastic Realism (Rou
 tledge 2009) and has published widely on adolescence and young adult write
 rs\, including Robert Cormier\, Margaret Mahy\, Philip Pullman and J.D. Sa
 linger. She is co-organiser of an interdisciplinary Memory Network and is 
 currently investigating the practice and processes of adults remembering a
 nd rereading childhood books. Her research interests also extend to ideas 
 of consciousness\, memory and science in young adult fiction.\n
LOCATION:Homerton College\, Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PH\, MAB\, Room 
 104
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