Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children's Literature

Bringing together childrena€?s literature scholars from China and the United States, this collection provides an introduction to the scope and goals of a field characterized by active but also distinctive scholarship in two countries with very different rhetorical traditions. The volumea€?s five sections highlight the differences between and overlapping concerns of Chinese and American scholars, as they examine childrena€?s literature with respect to cultural metaphors and motifs, historical movements, authorship, didacticism, important themes, and the current status of and future directions for literature and criticism. Wide-ranging and admirably ambitious in its encouragement of communication between scholars from two major nations, Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Childrena€?s Literature serves as a model for examining how and why childrena€?s literature, more than many literary forms, circulates internationally.

Claudia Nelson is Professor of English and Rebecca Morris is completing her PhD in English at Texas A&M University.