Deleuze in Children's Literature
Combines contemporary scholarship on children’s literature with Deleuzian concepts to reinvigorate readings of children’s literature
- Reads children’s literature from a Deleuzian perspective
- Looks in depth at Deleuze’s own children’s book with Jacqueline Duhême, L'oiseau philosophie (The Bird Philosophy)
- Includes chapters on central Deleuzian concepts: pure repetition, becoming, cartographies, stuttering and nonsense
Jane Newland explores how Deleuzian concepts can enhance and invigorate our readings of children's literature, whose implied readership masks much paradox. She focuses on children’s texts by some of the authors who fascinate Deleuze, including Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Lewis Carroll, André Dhôtel, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio and Michel Tournier. These authors recur across Deleuze’s work and shaped his literary writings.
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and notes on translations
1. Introduction: The paradoxes of children’s literature
or making sense of children’s literature
2. Pure repetition and Aiôn
3. Becoming-animal, becoming-molecular, becoming-imperceptible
4. Lines, maps, and islands
5. Stuttering, nonsense, and zeroth voice
6. Painting the imperceptible: Deleuze in picture book form
7. Conclusion: Children’s literature on a witch’s broom
References
Index.
Abbreviations and notes on translations
1. Introduction: The paradoxes of children’s literature
or making sense of children’s literature
2. Pure repetition and Aiôn
3. Becoming-animal, becoming-molecular, becoming-imperceptible
4. Lines, maps, and islands
5. Stuttering, nonsense, and zeroth voice
6. Painting the imperceptible: Deleuze in picture book form
7. Conclusion: Children’s literature on a witch’s broom
References
Index.
Newland follows Deleuze down the rabbit hole of children’s literature, exploring the bizarre repetitions of Eugene Ionesco; the ritournelles of Pierrette Fleutiaux; the becoming-animal and becoming-molecular of Virginia Woolf; the becoming-plant of J. M. Gustave Le Clézio; a world out of time in Michel Tournier; and language from stutter, to howl, to (non)sense, to the zeroth voice in Lewis Carroll and James Joyce. Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.
Newland has a gift for making Deleuzian concepts accessible and efficacious. She demonstrates how and why Deleuzian theory should guide literary critics through the paradoxes inherent in the adult/child relationship that informs children’s literature. Deleuze in Children’s Literature is smart, innovative, and elegant. It will become a scholarly imperative for opening a new door to children’s literature.
