Children’s Literature at the MLA

For those of my readers who might be attending the MLA in LA this week, I am posting all of the Children’s Literature sessions. Hope to see you there!  (Well, except for the first one.  MLA’s sessions are – for the first time that I’m aware – beginning before 3:30 pm.  So, I won’t have arrived yet.  :-/)

THURSDAY, 6 JANUARY

54. A Century of The Secret Garden

1:45—3:00 p.m., Diamond Salon 6, J. W. Marriott

Program arranged by the Children’s Literature Association

Presiding: Joe Sutliff Sanders, Kansas State Univ.

1. “The Psychology of Belonging: Ownership and Liberty in The Secret Garden,” Chamutal Noimann, Borough of Manhattan Community Coll., City Univ. of New York

2. “Burnett, Brontë, and Britain,” June S. Cummins, San Diego State Univ.

3. “‘Tha’ Mun Talk a Bit o’ Yorkshire’: Region and Dialect in The Secret Garden,” Katharine Slater, Univ. of California, San Diego

4. “Cripp(l)ing Colin: Disability in The Secret Garden,” Martha Stoddard Holmes, California State Univ., San Marcos

151. Adult Memory and Reimagining the Past in Children’s Literature

5:15—6:30 p.m., Olympic II, J. W. Marriott

A special session

Presiding: Roni Natov, Brooklyn Coll., City Univ. of New York

1. “The Absent Boy: Memory, Desire, and Adult Reimagining in Stevenson’s Treasure Island,” Tim Heath, Ambrose Univ. Coll.

2. “Biting Back: Remembering Childhood in Jules Valles’s L’enfant,” Sarah K. Cantrell, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

3. “Reimagining Time like Space: Memory and Rereading Children’s Literature,” Alison Waller, Roehampton Univ.

For abstracts, write to rnatov@brooklyn.cuny.edu

SATURDAY, 8 JANUARY

437. Visions of the West: California in Ethnic Adolescent Literature

8:30—9:45 a.m., Atrium II, J. W. Marriott

Program arranged by the Children’s Literature Association

Presiding: Jackie E. Stallcup, California State Univ., Northridge; Michelle Pagni Stewart, Mount San Jacinto Coll., CA

1. “Seeking Refuge: Vietnamese Adolescent Novels and the Myth of the California Dream,” Kassandra Clark, Univ. of Texas, Austin

2. “Out of Place: Mexican Whiteboy and the California Regional Child,” Katharine Slater, Univ. of California, San Diego

3. “Reconstruction of History in Yoshiko Uchida’s Samurai of Gold Hill,” Junko Yokota, Kashiwa-shi, Japan

608. Nostalgia and Children’s Literature

3:30—4:45 p.m., Diamond Salon 2, J. W. Marriott

Program arranged by the Division on Children’s Literature

Presiding: Lee A. Talley, Rowan Univ.

1. “The Homesick Heroine: The Rejection of Nostalgia in German Girls’ Books,” Julie Pfeiffer, Hollins Univ.

2. “Dreaming the Past: Nostalgia, Prophecy, and Children’s Literature,” Amy Christine Billone, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville

3. “Fin de Siècle Nostalgia in The Luxe and Gossip Girl,” Anastasia Ulanowicz, Univ. of Florida

SUNDAY, 9 JANUARY

791. The End(s) of Theory in Children’s Literature Studies

1:45—3:00 p.m., Platinum Salon I, J. W. Marriott

Program arranged by the Division on Children’s Literature

Presiding: Craig Svonkin, Metropolitan State Coll.

1. “Theory Will Eat Itself: Children’s Literature at the Crossroads of Critical Consciousness,” Graeme Wend-Walker, Texas State Univ., San Marcos

2. “Women and Children First,” Katie Elizabeth Strode, Univ. of California, Riverside

3. “Criticism as Bricolage: Theorizing the Hawai‘i Boys’ Book,” Stanley D. Orr, Univ. of Hawai‘i, West O‘ahu

4. “Posthuman Theory and the End(s) of Childhood,” Kenneth Byron Kidd, Univ. of Florida