Overview

Despite Kipling's popularity as an author and his standing as a politically controversial figure, much of his work has remained relatively unexamined due to its characterization as 'children's literature'. Sue Walsh challenges the apparently clear division between 'children's' and 'adult' literature, and poses important questions about how these strict categories have influenced critical work on Kipling and on literature in general. For example, why are some of Kipling's books viewed as children's literature, and what critical assumptions does this label produce? Why is it that Kim is viewed by critics as transcending attempts at categorization? Using Kipling as a case study, Walsh discusses texts such as Kim, The Jungle Books, the Just-So Stories, Puck of Pook's Hill, and Rewards and Fairies, re-evaluating earlier critical approaches and offering fresh readings of these relatively neglected works. In the process, she suggests new directions for postcolonial and childhood studies and interrogates the way biographical criticism on children's literature in particular has tended to supersede and obstruct other kinds of readings.

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9781138259379

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Reviews

"'This exciting study interrogates the concept of ""children's literature"", revealing the richness and ambiguity of Kipling's work in this genre. Sue Walsh challenges naive and simplistic assumptions about childhood, and reductive biographical approaches to children's literature. In doing so, she illuminates central issues of language, identity and interpretation.' Tess Cosslett, Lancaster University, UK ’There is far more to the analyses presented in this book that I have space to describe... [the book has] thought-provoking comments... It should also be required reading for most of the authors listed in the Bibliography.’ Kipling Journal '... a welcome addition to Kipling criticism as it challenges interpretations based solely on assumptions about the author’s views and feelings or the truthfulness of the stories, and shows that there may be other avenues worth exploring.' International Centre for Research in Children's Literature ’The intense focus on the relationship between Kipling’s words and his illustrations offers an invigorating topic for study. More specifically, Walsh’s responses to previous critics’ interpretation of this relationship analyse in depth tales from the Just So Stories which are not commonly afforded such attention. The particular emphasis she gives to the disparity between the aural/oral and written qualities of the tales will offer the reader a considered response to the tales. ...Her familiarity with available secondary sources reinforces her main argument, bringing an additional depth to the monograph and accentuating that this work is indeed the culmination of many years of vigorous thought.’ English Studies"

'This exciting study interrogates the concept of children's literature , revealing the richness and ambiguity of Kipling's work in this genre. Sue Walsh challenges naive and simplistic assumptions about childhood, and reductive biographical approaches to children's literature. In doing so, she illuminates central issues of language, identity and interpretation.' Tess Cosslett, Lancaster University, UK 'There is far more to the analyses presented in this book that I have space to describe... [the book has] thought-provoking comments... It should also be required reading for most of the authors listed in the Bibliography.' Kipling Journal '... a welcome addition to Kipling criticism as it challenges interpretations based solely on assumptions about the author's views and feelings or the truthfulness of the stories, and shows that there may be other avenues worth exploring.' International Centre for Research in Children's Literature 'The intense focus on the relationship between Kipling's words and his illustrations offers an invigorating topic for study. More specifically, Walsh's responses to previous critics' interpretation of this relationship analyse in depth tales from the Just So Stories which are not commonly afforded such attention. The particular emphasis she gives to the disparity between the aural/oral and written qualities of the tales will offer the reader a considered response to the tales. ...Her familiarity with available secondary sources reinforces her main argument, bringing an additional depth to the monograph and accentuating that this work is indeed the culmination of many years of vigorous thought.' English Studies

Author Information

Sue Walsh is a lecturer in the Department of English and American Literature at the University of Reading, UK.

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