Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

Jill P. May’s Children’s Literature and Critical Theory
57
applies prominent 
schools of literary criticism to children’s literature, examining areas like interpretation, 
rhetorics, style and reader response.
Outside Britain, Northern America, Canada and Australia
, the critics of children’s 
literature are just as aware of the current developments as their English-speaking colleagues, 
if not maybe even more so through their contact with their native children’s books. In 1988, 
Russian-born Maria Nikolajeva embarked on children’s literature and fantasy with The 
Magic Code,
58
 
a structuralist approach to the field. Her contributions comprise not only 
articles on children’s literature in relevant journals, but she is also the editor of Aspects and 
Issues in the History of Children’s Literature,
59
 
an anthology on selected developments and 
changes in the genre. Children’s Literature Comes of Age: Towards a New Aesthetic
60
for 
51
Sandra L. Beckett. Crossover Fiction: Global and Historical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2009. 
52
Rachel Falconer. The Crossover Novel: Contemporary Children’s Fiction and Its Adult Readership. New 
York: Routledge, 2009.
53
Gillian Lathey (Ed.) The Translation of Children’s Literature: A Reader. Cleveland; Buffalo; Toronto: 
Multilingual Matters Ltd., 2006. 
54
John Stephens. Language and Ideology in Children’s Fiction. London: Longman, 1992. A study which 
approaches the concept of the narrator via contrasting views of authors and critics was published only three 
years prior. Cf. Charlotte F. Otten; Gary D. Schmidt (Eds.) The Voice of the Narrator in Children’s Literature: 
Insights from Writers and Critics
. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1989. 
55
John Stephens, Robyn McCallum. Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives 
in Children’s Literature
. New York et al.: Garland, 1998.
56
More detailed information about the landscape of children’s literature criticism provide for instance Watson 
(Ed.), The Cambridge Guide to Children’s Books in English; Jack Zipes (Ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of 
Children’s Literature
. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, as well as the many literary journals like The 
Lion and the Unicorn, Papers, Signal, Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature in Education, Canadian 
Children’s Literature or Children’s Literature Association Quarterly.
57
Jill P. May. Children’s Literature and Critical Theory: Reading and Writing for Understanding. New York; 
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. 
58
Maria Nikolajeva. The Magic Code: The Use of Magical Patterns in Fantasy for Children. Stockholm: 
University of Stockholm, doctoral dissertation, 1988.
59
Maria Nikolajeva (Ed.) Aspects and Issues in the History of Children’s Literature. Westport, CT; London: 
Greenwood Press, 1995.
60
Maria Nikolajeva. Children’s Literature Comes of Age: Toward a New Aesthetic. New York et al.: Garland, 
1996. 

---

75 
instance takes up the notion that current, post-modern children’s literature, having 
emancipated itself and matured, should therefore be analysed and criticised by means of the 
same critical, post-modern approaches and techniques as adult literature. As we will see later 
when examining differences and commonalities between children’s literature and literature 
for adults, this idea of a maturity of children’s literature, seemingly paradox at first, is 
legitimate. In From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children’s Literature
61
 
Nikolajeva pursues the 
theory that the time structure in children’s literature develops away from a circular towards a 
linear structure, i.e. away from an unchanging innocence in Arcadia towards progressive 
maturation beyond a point of no return. Her Aesthetic Approaches to Children’s Literature: 
An Introduction
62
are intended as a study guide, conveying approaches and guidance towards 
practical criticism for beginners with the help of examples.