* * * CALL FOR PAPERS * * *
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND THE LEFT
Session at the Modern Language Association's annual meeting
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 27-30, 2004
Sponsored by the MLA's Children's Literature Division
Wanda Gag, Syd Hoff, Crockett Johnson -- in addition to many others --
are famous for their children's books, but each also contributed
regularly to the New Masses (leftist successor to The Masses, published
until 1948). They are but a few children's writers who were involved
with the Left. Dr. Seuss published political cartoons in PM (popular
front newspaper, New York, 1940-48); looking back on the experience, he
remarked, "I had no great causes or interest in social issues until
[opposing] Hitler." More recently, Martin Waddell's Farmer Duck (1991,
illus. Helen Oxenbury), Michael Bedard's Sitting Ducks (1998), Toby
Speed's Brave Potatoes (2000, illus. Barry Root), and Doreen Cronin's
Click Clack Moo (2000, illus. Betsy Lewin) demonstrate the power to be
gained by organizing and agitating for one's rights. This panel invites
submissions related to any aspect of children's literature and
left-leaning political movements. Topics may include but are not
limited to: the Bank Street School (graduates include Margaret Wise
Brown and Ruth Krauss), activist children's books, theorizing
relationships between literature and politics, and individual authors
with related affiliations or interests. By 1 March 2004, please send
one-page abstracts to: Philip Nel, Department of English, Kansas State
University, Manhattan, KS 66506-6501; philnel@ksu.edu. Panelists will
need to be members of the MLA by 1 April 2004.
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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