University of Alberta

 

In honor of the 100th anniversary of Eleanor Hodgman Porter’s Pollyanna, we are soliciting essays for a proposed volume in the Children’s Literature Association’s Centennial Series.

The series seeks to re-examine children’s classics from a contemporary perspective.

 

Call for papers

All critical and theoretical approaches are welcome, as are analyses of the cultural productions connected to the novel, including sequels, translations, films, and television series. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Optimism

• Disability/disability studies

• Sympathy

• Christianity

• Girlhood studies

• Ideologies of class

• Ideologies of nationhood

• Constructions of motherhood/mothers and their replacements

• Constructions of the elderly

• Constructions of masculinity

• “Queerness” and other sexualities

• Sentimentality (and/or reality) and constructions of the child

• Nature (and/or eco-critical perspectives)

• The novel in the context of its sequels, “The Glad Books”

• The novel in the context of Porter’s other novels for children

• The novel in the context of Porter’s writing for adults

• The novel in the context of stage, film, and television adaptations

• The novel in the context of board and video game adaptations

• The reception of Pollyanna around the world

 

Abstracts of 250-500 words are due to both editors 10 January 2012; please put “Pollyanna-author last name” in the subject line.

Completed articles of around 6000 words will be due 1 May 2012.

 

contact email:

Roxanne Harde: rharde@augustana.ca  

and Lydia Kokkola: lydia.kokkala@utu.fi