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168 pp, 1997
$17.95 paper 0-87745-591-0
A CHOICE Outstanding Academic Book
“...engaging and accessible, a strong contribution to the field of
children's literature. Teachers—especially those who might at first
resist feminism—should find this book helpful and enlightening. It's
challenging without being threatening.”—Kathleen Chamberlain, Emory
& Henry College
“...a rarity: scholarly, readable, consistently intelligent,
and—although highly committed to its subject—well balanced and
accessible. Trites achieves her twin aims of introducing newcomers to
children's literature and to feminist theory, and of emphasizing that
feminism is a positive force for children, with considerable
panache.”—Peter Hunt, editor of The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature
“A study of the feminist elements in children's novels written during the past thirty years, Waking Sleeping Beauty
is elegantly organized, theoretically sophisticated, but accessible to
the nonspecialist reader. Trites' own voice speaks with a directness
and a conviction unusual in academic writing. Thus her work should
enlighten teachers, librarians, and parents as well as other feminist
scholars and literary critics.”—Elizabeth Lennox Keyser, editor of Children's Literature
“Trites points out individual threads in the tapestry—threads we missed
when we were just reading the story. She is at her best when she shows
us the obvious in a story the reader knows. As a novice to feminist
theory and text criticism, I needed support with the new concepts.
Trites provides the scaffold of support for the novice, helping each of
us into the discussion.”—R. Kay Moss, Illinois State University
“A persuasive blend of theoretical expertise and strong personal
conviction, this introduction to feminist literary criticism offers new
readings of classic children's books as well as glimpses of recent
books on the multicultural horizon. Trites' argument for including
feminist critique in the college classroom is irresistible.”—Lucy
Rollin, Clemson University
The
Sleeping Beauty in Roberta Seelinger Trites' intriguing text is no
silent snoozer passively waiting for Prince Charming to energize her
life. Instead she wakes up all by herself and sets out to redefine the
meaning of “happily ever after.” Trites investigates the many ways that
Sleeping Beauty's newfound voice has joined other strong female voices
in feminist children's novels to generate equal potentials for all
children.
Waking Sleeping Beauty
explores issues of voice in a wide range of children's novels,
including books by Virginia Hamilton, Patricia MacLachlan, and Cynthia
Voight as well as many multicultural and international books. Far from
being a limiting genre that praises females at the expense of males,
the feminist children's novel seeks to communicate an inclusive vision
of politics, gender, age, race, and class. By revising former
stereotypes of children's literature and replacing them with more
complete images of females in children's books, Trites encourages those
involved with children's literature—teachers, students, writers,
publishers, critics, librarian, booksellers, and parents—to be aware of
the myriad possibilities of feminist expression.
Roberta Trites focuses on the positive aspects of feminism: on the ways
females interact through family and community relationships, on the
ways females have revised patriarchal images, and on the ways female
writers use fictional constructs to transmit their ideologies to
readers. She thus provides a framework that allows everyone who enters
a classroom with a children's book in hand to recognize and
communicate—with an optimistic, reality-based sense of “happily ever
after”—the politics and the potential of that book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Defining the Feminist Children's Novel
2. Subverting Stereotypes: Rejecting Traditional Gender Roles
3. Subjectivity as a Gender Issue: Metaphors and Intertextuality
4. Transforming Feminine Silence: Pro/claiming Female Voices
5. Re/constructing the Female Writer: Subjectivity in the Feminist Kunstlerroman
6. Female Interdependency: Literal and Metaphoric Sisterhood
7. Refuting Freud: Mother/Daughter Relationships
8. Metafiction and the Politics of Identity: Narrativity, Subjectivity, and Community
9. Afterword: Feminist Pedagogy and Children's Literature
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