Literary Cultures and Twenty-First-Century Childhoods

In the early decades of the twenty-first century, we are grappling with the legaciesof past centuries and their cascading effects upon children and all people.

In the early decades of the twenty-first century, we are grappling with the legaciesof past centuries and their cascading effects upon children and all people. Werealize anew how imperialism, globalization, industrialization, and revolutioncontinue to reshape our world and that of new generations. At a volatile moment,this collection asks how twenty-first century literature and related mediarepresent and shape the contemporary child, childhood, and youth. Because literary representations construct ideal childhoods as well as model therights, privileges, and respect afforded to actual young people, this collectionsurveys examples from popular culture and from scholarly practice. Chaptersinvestigate the human rights of children in literature and international policy; thepotential subjective agency and power of the child; the role models proposed foryoung people; the diverse identities children embody and encounter; and theenvironmental well-being of future human and nonhuman generations. As a snapshot of our developing historical moment, this collection identifiesemergent trends, considers theories and critiques of childhood and literature,and observes how new technologies and paradigms are destabilizing pastconventions of storytelling and lived experience.