Psychoanalytic responses to children's literature

Abstract

With the growing emphasis on theory in literary studies, psychoanalytic criticism has taken its place alongside other forms as an important contribution to literary interpretation. Despite its tendency to make readers uncomfortable, it offers insights into human nature, and hence is appropriate in examining a genre such as children's literature. Sixteen chapters in this work explore the psychological subtexts of a number of important children's books, including Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio, Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach, Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy, Mark Twain's Prince and the Pauper and E.B. White's Charlotte's Web. While most of the analyses deal primarily with the psychological development of characters, some focus on the lives of authors and illustrators, such as Beatrix Potter and Jessie Willcox Smith. Other chapters analyze the various responses that readers have to children's books. The work draws on the ideas of such psychoanalytic theorists as Sigmund Freud, Alice Miller, D.W. Winnicott and Jacques Lacan.