Death between the lines of The Little Prince: loneliness, alienation, and the autobiographical metaphor of suicide

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) is now widely recognized as one of the most perceptive cultural critics of the modern society. Compared with many literary and cultural issues that Benjamin explores, however, his essays on children's picture books have received relatively little sustained scholarly attention in their own right. The paper proposes that there is a fitness about Benjamin's role as a thinker who theorizes children's picture books, evident in such notable examples as ”A Child's View of Color” (1914-1915), ”Notes for a Study of the Beauty of Colored Illustrations in Children's Books” (1918-1921), ”Old Forgotten Children's Books” (1924), and ”A Glimpse into The World of Children's Books” (1926). The first two were unpublished notes, and the latter two were published in literary magazines of Benjamin's times. These notes or essays are indeed part of his early writings, in which Benjamin's reflections on picture books are not systematically theorized. They are, however, inseparable from Benjamin's other writings, and constitute part of the testimonies of the development of key concepts upon which he dwells in his exploration of knowledge of experience. Picture books are, as the paper indicates, not only essential in his childhood reading, but also take an integral part in his personal collection. It is important to note that picture books also become a telling indication of Benjamin's mediation between art and philosophical contemplation when the First World War obliges him to search for a new form of knowledge of experience. In his notes and essays, the paper argues, Benjamin demonstrates that picture books are by no means a mere tool designed for pedagogical purposes. Instead, Benjamin is concerned to explore the ethical and aesthetical dimensions of children's picture books. In order to shed light on his concern, the paper teases out the issues that engage Benjamin, such as language of picture book (particularly, colors in picture books), children's perception, and the social usage (or production) of picture books.

Guides to Heavenly Mother

Reviewed by: The Child's Philosopher ed. by Maughn Rollins Gregory and Megan Jane Laverty Claudia Mills (bio) Gareth B. Matthews, The Child's Philosopher. Edited by Maughn Rollins Gregory and Megan Jane Laverty. Routledge, 2022. Throughout my career as a philosophy professor who is also a children's book author, and a children's book author who is also a philosophy professor, I have often been asked about what seemed to many an odd pairing of professions. I'd answer that philosophers were just the grownups who kept on asking the childlike questions that the other grownups had long ago abandoned. Gareth B. Matthews (1929-2011) was a highly respected philosopher specializing in Aristotelian metaphysics who forged a pioneering path by responding to children's philosophical questions with extraordinary respect and deep seriousness. In books such as Philosophy and the Young Child (1980), Dialogues with Children (1984), and The Philosophy of Childhood (1994), he analyzed conversations with his own children and grandchildren as well as schoolchildren in both American and international settings, arguing that even young children are capable of conceptual reasoning and their philosophical speculations are worthy of adult attention. His work as a visionary leader in the Philosophy for Children movement is given appreciative (but also critical) examination in this title in Routledge's new series on Philosophy for Children Founders. Following the series format, the volume on Matthews is organized into sections featuring different aspects of his work, each with a substantial introduction by a prominent scholar who situates his writings in a wider context and provides an extensive bibliography of relevant literature, followed by a selection of Matthews's essays curated by that scholar. The introductions are uniformly well researched and thoughtful, striking a tone that is both celebratory of Matthews's work and willing to note its limitations, among these that his evidence for the "naturalness" of children's philosophizing is a product of specific culture factors that he ignores. But it is Matthews's own words that are rightly the star of this excellent collection. His clarity of thought, droll but provocative examples of the children's insights he recorded, and bold positions advanced with disarming charm make for delightful reading. Part I, on philosophy and children's literature, reflects Matthews's view that "authors of children's books are more likely than psychologists, educational theorists, or even philosophers to be sensitive to philosophical thought in young children" (44). In his seminal 1976 article "Philosophy and Children's Literature" which, according to section editor Karin Murris, "inaugurated the study of philosophy in children's literature" (47), he highlights children's books that raise philosophical questions in a style he calls "philosophical whimsy." The Bear That Wasn't by Frank Tashlin engages [End Page 337] themes of "dreaming and skepticism," "being and non-being," "appearance and reality," and "the foundations of knowledge" (61). Rich philosophical insights abound in Baum's Tin Woodman (personal identity), Thurber's Many Moons (perception and illusion), and the Roo-capturing scene in Winnie-the-Pooh when Pooh ponders the "Aha!" that he's supposed to say to Kanga and wonders whether he can make it mean all the elaborate things Rabbit has told him it needs to mean; Matthews likens Pooh's speculations to questions about meaning posed by Wittgenstein in his Philosophical Investigations. A second essay in this section contrasts the condescension toward children of "Questions" in Jean Van Leeuwen's More Tales of Oliver the Pig, which offers a "phony contrast between naïve ignorance in children and patient wisdom in adults" (69), with Arnold Lobel's invitation for readers of all ages to join together in exploring puzzles about the nature of causation posed by Toad's mistaken reasoning in "The Garden" in Frog and Toad Are Friends, where Toad thinks his "hard work" of singing and reading to his seeds has caused them to grow. Matthew's essay "Children, Irony and Philosophy" (reprinted in the section on developmental psychology) employs this same story to refute theorists who argue that preschoolers cannot understand irony. Part II, on children's philosophical thinking, is replete with children's philosophical questions and comments that demonstrate remarkable imagination and insight...

I commenced the doctorate programme with the intention of reviewing my past practice and began by reflecting on a recent body of work I had created for a solo exhibition. My intention then was to explore the relationships between my works, which included print, photography and video, and maximize their impact within a space. The notion of exploring ambiguities and correspondences between media naturally excites me as I strive not to be restricted by my use of media. I have identified key elements that are important to the making of my work. These are repetition, appropriation, memory and re-enactment. The elements that I have identified as important to the subject matter in my work are mortality, fragility and lament, (the human condition). These elements remain relevant to my creative practice and theoretical research and the corresponding references to damage and repair have surfaced as key concerns. My interest lies in specific individuals and communities, their changing states and how this impacts on personal lives and histories. My work is inspired by and rooted in my own personal life experiences; referencing family, religion, ritual and my participation in field archery. There is a breadth to my research and engagement with my subject matter that is not immediately apparent to the viewer but contributes to a reading of the work. My approach to research, questioning my everyday and personal experiences helps me to maximize my initial interest and understanding of a subject before exploring it through the making of the work. My desire to identify with my subject on an experiential level has surfaced as crucial to my understanding and development of my ideas. My interest in the physicality of process has been further enhanced by a shift in direction towards more tactile and sculptural concerns within my work.

Aktualizuojant jūrinį asmenybės ugdymą jūrinėje valstybėje ir keliant aktualią adekvačios jūrinės savimonės ugdymo problemą universaliosios ekologijos lygmeniu, straipsnyje, ryškinant socialinės interakcijos įtaką jūros suvokimui, nagrinėjant jūrinės edukacijos mitologinį ir virtualųjį lygmenis bei nurodant tiesioginio sąlyčio su jūra reikšmę, atskleidžiami svarbesni jūros vaizdinį formuojantys socioedukacinio pobūdžio veiksniai. Darbe taikomi pagrindiniai analizės, metaanalizės, interpretacijos, sisteminimo bei sintezės metodai. Epistemologinę teorinio-deskriptyvinio tyrimo bazę sudaro egzistencializmo, fenomenologijos ir humanizmo metodologinės nuostatos, kuriomis grindžiama jūros vaizdinio formavimo problematika hodegetiniu lygmeniu.

The research aims to provide a comprehensive perspective on sustainable life skills in early childhood and examine the inclusion of these skills in children's picture books. A checklist for sustainable life skills was proposed in the study, based on the literature. 75 books were selected from 320 children’s picture book examined using the criterion sampling method. In the data analysis, qualitative content analysis was used to determine whether the children's picture books included sustainable life skills. A book review conducted using this checklist determined that children's books contain strong content in terms of the life skills of respect and rethink. On the other hand, life skills related to the themes of reducing, reusing, and connecting with nature were identified as being addressed quite limitedly in the books. Results are expected to raise awareness about the use of children's picture books in educational practices for sustainability. Children's picture book are expected to support teachers in understanding and implementing sustainability-related activities within the EfS framework. Furthermore, the use of children's picture books is considered to play a significant facilitating role in planning and implementing EfS practices appropriate to the children's age and developmental levels in pre-service and in-service teacher training.

Building on insights from a previously conducted, collection-wide diversity analysis of a university’s children’s literature collection, this study investigated how structured instruction introduced preservice teachers to similar analytic frameworks and supported their critical examination of representation in children’s picture books. The study examined how a diverse book analysis of the main and secondary characters in picture books held at a university library influenced how preservice teachers think about and view diversity in children's picture books. Through a literacy course, 27 preservice teachers were introduced to notions of diversity in children’s books and learned about how to classify main and secondary characters in children's books according to a pre-determined list of diversity classifications. They also learned how to evaluate these books including the content and illustrations and how to effectively use reliable, professional resources for their teaching. They practiced analyzing picture books while using the classification system they learned, completed a diverse book project, and reflected on their learning experiences. Data collected in this study included their pre- and post-surveys, a diversity project, and a reflection paper. Results showed that toward the end of the semester, preservice teachers broadened their understanding of diversity, realized the important role of diverse books for children, and committed to incorporate high-quality diverse children's books in their teaching. Keywords: Content Analysis, Preservice Teachers, Diverse Children’s Books, Picture Books, Classroom Applications DOI: 10.7176/JEP/17-1-05 Publication date: January 30th 2026

Modernist drama, as an important transformative force in 20th-century dramatic art, has a unique artistic expression system composed of symbolic narrative and spatial poetics. Symbolic narrative breaks through the logic of reality through metaphor, suggestion and other techniques, and constructs a symbolic network of the spiritual world. Spatial poetics reconstructs time and space through the stage, achieving a leap from physical space to the spiritual dimension. The two interpenetrate each other in the dramatic text and jointly complete the philosophical inquiry into the human existence and circumstances. This article discusses from three dimensions: the symbolic system of symbolic narrative, the ontological construction of spatial poetics and its interactive relationship, revealing how modernist drama responds to the spiritual crisis of The Times through the innovation of artistic forms and providing theoretical references for contemporary drama creation.

In this study, it is aimed to examine the knowledge levels of parents with children aged 0-3 regarding the criteria they consider when choosing a children's picture book. The study was carried out with a qualitative research approach. The study group consists of 69 parents with children aged 0-3, and the data of the study were collected through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. After the data were subjected to content analysis, they were presented in tables. As a result of the research, it has been revealed that parents with 0-3 year old children should have quality children's books and the features they pay attention to when choosing children's books, the child's interest, internal structure and external structure. It has been found that when choosing a children's picture book, parents pay particular attention to its suitability for the age and development of the child, its plain language, the presence of vivid colors and its non-violence. The content of the images is thick cardboard and the book is neatly bound with the appropriate font and image size. By looking at the outer coating and quality of quality paper, they think about whether it is educational, entertaining, creative and contains a concept of value.

Reviewed by: Truth and Irony: Philosophical Meditations on Erasmus by Terence J. Martin Erik De Bom Terence J. Martin. Truth and Irony: Philosophical Meditations on Erasmus. Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 2015. Pp. xii + 258. Cloth, $65.00. This is a remarkable book on an important theme, namely, knowing ourselves, which the author elaborates in three meditations. The first is devoted to the virtues and vices of the tongue, that is, the relationship between truth and deceit. It is in this chapter that irony, the central concept of the book, is most fully elaborated. The second has war as its central theme and deals first and foremost with the possibility of civilizing war. Is there any sanity in war? In the last meditation, a bunch of related questions are treated that boil down to the role of security, prosperity, happiness, and pleasure in life. Each of the three meditations is a fine and erudite examination wherein the author tries to unravel an aspect of our human existence in an elegant style and with many references to both major and minor thinkers, past and present. What makes this book so original is that Terence Martin invites us to reflect on the central theme of knowing ourselves in dialogue with Erasmus of Rotterdam, a key European intellectual and author. The famous Dutch humanist is introduced as "absent a partner in conversation" (5). Of course, Martin is fully aware that there are historical differences between Erasmus's time and ours, but, after all, according to Martin, we "face roughly the same difficulties in knowing ourselves. … And, too, we stumble over many of the same quandaries and we aspire to much the same kind of clarity when we pause to reflect on some very basic questions" (11). Although Martin's intention to engage with Erasmus directly to solve contemporary questions—challenging the widespread contention, as famously expressed by, among others, Quentin Skinner, that there are no perennial questions, let alone perennial answers—he merits credit for stating his approach and ambitions so openly. For such a goal, it is legitimate to choose Erasmus as a conversation partner. Martin sees this conversation as an engagement with the Erasmian manner of thinking (10). Although for the title of the introduction he uses the indefinite article (An Erasmian manner of thinking), he speaks subsequently of the Erasmian manner of thinking. This is problematic, for one may well doubt whether there exists such a thing as the Erasmian manner. As Nicolette Mout, Heribert Smolinsky, and Jan Trapman made clear with Erasmianism: Idea and Reality (1997), it is far from evident that the versatile Dutch thinker can be reduced to a vast set of characteristics. It becomes clear quickly that Martin has a very particular Erasmus in mind, namely, the Erasmus of The Praise of Folly and a couple of possibly related works. No doubt, Erasmus shows himself to be an unconventional author in this grand piece of literature, one who dares to question the best of our beliefs caught in a flood of irony. However, as Martin himself acknowledges, the Laus Stultitiae was a kind of light book written during a journey, whose importance he always downplayed. He presented himself first and foremost as a theologian. As a consequence, the Erasmian manner of thinking is interpreted in a very specific way. One might argue—and rightly—that this kind of approach could be defended. The problem, however, is that Martin not only wants to make use of a particular interpretation of Erasmus to solve contemporary problems, but also "to recover the intellectual posture and manner of thinking found in the works of Erasmus" (33). Or, as he states elsewhere, he hopes "that the deployment of Erasmian thinking in these meditations might prompt someone to return for a fresh reading of Erasmus" (37, see also 224: "the primary step toward understanding Erasmus"). In other words, besides a better understanding of [End Page 542] ourselves in our own times, the contemporary dialogue with the great humanist must lead to a better understanding of the humanist himself. More precisely, Martin wants a firmer grasp of "the precarious independence of Erasmus" (10). An intellectual historian may doubt the extent to...

This biography of the American artist, Andrew Wyeth, covers the complex facets of his personal and professional life. It tracks his childhood of personal home tutors and the nuturing of his artistic talent under the watchful eye of his father, the children's book illustrator, N.C. Wyeth. Andrew Wyeth produced a substantial body of impressive works, his most famous probably being Christina's World. His paintings sold in the 1970s for millions of dollars. Each chapter in this book is chronological and creative, intertwining his artistic work with corresponding events in his personal life, including his latter years when he suddenly showed great interest in painting nudes leading him into a secret liaison with the model Helga.

Human nature, human condition, human destiny are all concepts used by E. Bernea in his philosophy to configure the backbone of an anthropological concept aimed at perfecting the human being in the sense of its elevation to a superior level of wisdom and virtue. This target cannot be reached unless the creative spirit intervenes as a generative factor for human being's affective and emotional development as well as intellectual, cultural and moral/spiritual. Human spirit is however studied by another specialization – anthroposophy. Therefore the human philosophical issues approached by Ernest Berne arrange between philosophical anthropology and anthroposophy. This is how we understand why his two main posthumous works – Philosophical meditations. Notes for an outdated philosophy and Small treaty of wisdom and virtue – Ernest Bernea tackles on almost the whole of the philosophical anthropology – human nature, human condition, human origin, man himself, man for others, human relationships with nature and society, basic laws of being and human existence – in conjunction with the ideational area of anthroposophy, with the explicit aim of underlining the decisive role of the spirit in the existence and functioning of man.

The Women in Gerontology Legacy (WIGL) Project involved interviewing 46 older women gerontologists between 2014 and 2015. The current study focuses on the WIGL interview questions regarding the interactions between participants' experiences as gerontologists and their own aging. Emergent themes focus on the direction of influence: professional lives influencing personal lives, personal lives informing professional lives and mutuality between personal and professional lives. Thematic findings expand our current understanding of how professional knowledge and experiences contribute to personal aging experiences and the role personal aging experiences can have on the professional lives of women gerontologists. There is a potential for disconnect to occur between our personal experiences and the experiences of others. The current study contributes to our understanding of when and how this occurs, so we can then ensure our messages fall on receptive ears by overcoming the natural tendency to distort or ignore messages that may create anxiety.

This chapter describes the interaction of the social and psychodynamic problems, and their simultaneous solution by the formula that “role” provides self-consciousness. One of the more popular lines of contemporary social criticism holds that the impersonality of male career culture deadens the inner world of working men. The culture of careers suggests something of a solution, at least for the social problem. Men who face these contradictory social demands — that they be both collegial and dispassionate — often describe their sense of “acting in role.” That is, they reveal something of their personal lives, but only to the degree that the job requires. The chapter shows the conceptual limits of a particular interpretive perspective — classic role theory — which for the moment may appear to us not an interpretive perspective at all.

In this study, Laffrado examines a long-neglected but significant aspect of Nathaniel Hawthorne's literary career - his writings for children. In turning to children's literature, Hawthorne endeavoured to transform the prevailing practices of the genre by providing young people with books that were both well crafted and truthful about history, experience, faith and the threats to innocence in a world of rationalism and materialism. The writer's ventures into children's literature began in 1841 with a series of historical stories: Grandfather's Chair, Famous Old People and Liberty Tree; these were followed in 1842 by Biographical Stories for Children. The author's last children's books: A Wonder for Boys and Girls (1851) and Tanglewood Tales (1853) were collections of stories based on classical myths. Through an analysis of these six books, Laffrado aims to develop a new biographical and intertextual perspective on Hawthorne's art and re-envisions the trajectory of his literary career. These works, she argues, reflect the concerns of his major writings, as well as those of his culture. Evident in his children's books, are Hawthorne's despair at artistic failure, his concerns about a mass culture and a US divided by sectional differences and his ambiguous attitudes toward gender relations. Laffrado also explores how changes in narrator, subject matter and framing devices in these works reflect stages in Hawthorne's personal life - from the financially struggling bachelor and unsuccessful author of the early collections to the happily married, successful writer of A Wonder Book and, finally, to the man worn out by age, reflecting on the losses of his own life in Tanglewood Tales.