Research Catalog

Title

Class, leisure and national identity in British children's literature, 1918-1950 / Hazel Sheeky Bird.

Author

Sheeky Bird, Hazel, 1977-

Publication

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

x, 208 pages; 23 cm.

Summary

"In Britain, the years after 1918 witnessed an explosion of interest in the pursuit of leisure, which, after the austerity and restrictions of the First World War, was increasingly viewed as a right for all. With limited resources, particularly of space, the provision for, and impact of leisure became highly contested subjects. Focusing on hiking, camping and sailing stories, Class, Leisure and National Identity in British Children's Literature, 1918 - 1950 challenges and explores the popular suggestion that these books were merely escapist and demonstrates the continued importance of maritime Britain in children's literature. Drawing from an extensive range of children's books - from the ephemeral to the well-known novels of Arthur Ransome - this book places children's literature at the forefront of the struggle to shape readers' understanding of the countryside as a place of quietude, whilst rejecting the claims of mass tourism. As such, it situates children's literature at the centre of a range of complex arguments about the politics of leisure, class and national identity."--

Series Statement

Critical approaches to children's literature

Uniform Title

Critical approaches to children's literature

Subject

• 1900-1999
• 1900-talet
• Children's literature, English > History and criticism
• English literature > 20th century > History and criticism
• Children > Books and reading > Great Britain
• Literature and society > Great Britain > History > 20th century
• National characteristics, British, in literature
• Leisure in literature
• Social classes in literature
• LITERARY CRITICISM > Children's Literature
• Children > Books and reading
• Children's literature, English
• English literature
• LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
• Literature and society

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. Introduction -- 2. A Very Fuzzy Set-Defining Camping and Tramping Fiction -- 3. The Delights of the Open Road, Footloose and Fancy Free -- 4. Landscape and Tourism in the Camping and Tramping Countryside -- 5. Mapping the Geographical Imagination -- 6. The Family Sailing Story -- 7. England Expects: The Nelson Tradition and the Politics of Service in Naval Cadet and Family Sailing Stories -- 8. Conclusion: A Disappearing Act -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

ISBN

• 9781137407429
• 1137407425

LCCN

^^2014025118

OCLC

• 881656018
• SCSB-11663791

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library