Sixth Biennial Conference on MODERN CRITICAL APPROACHES TO CHILDREN’S
LITERATURE
MARCH 31- APRIL 2, 2005
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Sponsored by Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Speakers at a Glance
Speaker & Forum
Abate, Michelle Ann 6.3
Apol, Laura 1.3
Baines, Patricia L. 3.3
Barnes, Aisha 4.3
Barrett, Lynne 12.2
Benson, Linda G. 6.2
Bodmer, George 10.1
Bruster, Reginald 1.1
Cadden, Mike 6.2
Capasso, Ruth Carver 11.1
Coats, Karen 12.1
Cohoon, Lorinda B. 6.3
Connolly, Paula T. 5.1
Cox, Bené Scanlon 7.2
Crisp, Thomas B. 1.3
Cummins, June 3.1, 13
Doyle, Christine 12.3
Dresang, Eliza T. 7.1
Eiselein, Gregory 9
Flynn, Richard 4.1
Fox, Paul 2.1
Gibson, Julie 3.2
Gillhouse, Elizabeth 1.2
Gross, Melissa 5.3
Gyurisin, Jennifer 4.3
Hastings, A. Waller 6.1
Hatfield, Charles 5.2
Helton, Edwina L. 6.3
Henderson, Laretta 3.2
Hepner, Stephanie 11.1
Holt, Elvin 1.1
Imison-Bowker, Katrina 6.2
Jones, Caroline E. 10.2
Johnson, Dianne 11.2
Joseph, Michael 3.1
Keeling, Kara 11.2
Kidd, Kenneth 3.1
Klassen, Jonathan 4.3
Klein, Paige 1.2
Knuth, Carole Brown 10.1
Kory, Fern 7.1
Lares, Jameela 11.3
Larkin, Susan 7.3
LaRose, Jacqueline P. 1.3
Latham, Don 7.1
MacCann, Donnarae 8, 13
Malkovich, Amberyl 4.2
Martin, Cathlena 4.2
Martin, Michelle H. 10.3
Meador, Laura Gall 3.3
Miskec, Jennie 7.3
Mitra, Bansari 6.2
Nel, Philip 7.2
Obey, Erica 11.3
Oldenburger, Heidi 12.3
op de Beeck, Nathalie 6.1
Osa, Osayimwense 2.2
Paul, Lissa 4.1
Pennington, John 2.1
Peterson, Robert C. 5.2
Phillips, Anne K. 9
Piehl, Kathy 1.2
Plotz, Judith 10.3
Robinson, Rachel 4.2
Rutledge Amelia A. 5.3
Saksena, Divya 2.2
Scapple, Sharon 11.1
Shababb, Lauren 10.3
Smith, Joyce C. 10.2
Smith, Katharine Capshaw 5.1
Springman, Luke 12.3
Stall, J. D. 12.2
Stevenson, Diane 11.2
Stewart, Michelle Pagni 10.2
Stewart, Susan 11.3
Strode, Katie E. 10.1
Tal, Eve 5.3
Talley, Lee 3.3
Tarr, Anita 12.1
Tedesco, Laureen 1.1
Thomas, Jr., Joseph T. 4.1
Tolson, Nancy D. 5.1, 13
Trites, Roberta Seelinger 7.2
Werner, Craig 12.2
Westman, Karin E. 5.2
Wiggins, Kayla McKinney 2.1
Witt, Jennifer Lee 7.3
Wood, Naomi J. 10.3
Wright, Nazera S. 3.2
Conference Directors: Ellen Donovan, Martha Hixon, Jennifer Marchant
English Department, Middle Tennessee State University
Program Schedule
THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2005
Registration—8:00-9:00 a.m.—Williamson Foyer
Session 1: 9:00-10:30
1.1 Crossing Boundaries—Brentwood
Moderator: Laureen Tedesco
“Crossing Racial and Cultural Boundaries in Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps’ The
Pasteboard Bandit”
Elvin Holt, Texas State University-San Marcos
“Why Huck Can’t Talk to Tom: Narrating White Failure on Africanism”
Reginald Bruster
“‘And yet I hope some little dark-faced sisters may read it too’: The White Reader and the
‘Other’ in Jane Andrews’s Seven Little Sisters Books”
Laureen Tedesco, East Carolina University
1.2 Revisions of Biblical Stories—Franklin
Moderator: Kathy Piehl
“Captain Noah’s Environmental Voyage”
Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato
“The Garden as a Modern Version of Paradise Lost”
Paige Klein, Middle Tennessee State University
“The Bible’s Beauty Makeover: Re-Visioning the Word for Contemporary Teens”
Elizabeth Gillhouse, Illinois State University
1.3 Where Have All the Narratives Gone?: Children’s Novels in the Form of Poetry, Police
Reports, and Online Entry—Davidson
Moderator: Laura Apol
“The Novelistic Poetic Sequence as a New Genre in Children’s Literature”
Laura Apol, Michigan State University
“Reality in the Novels of Walter Dean Myers”
Jacqueline P. LaRose, Michigan State University
“From ‘Dear Diary’ to <ROFLMAO>: Technology and the Epistolary Novel”
Thomas B. Crisp, Michigan State University
10:30 a.m.—Complimentary Refreshments
Session 2: 11:00-12:30
2.1 Time and Again: Peter Pan at 100—Brentwood
Moderator: Anita Tarr
“Time and Again: Peter Pan and the Return of the Aesthetic Moment”
Paul Fox, Zayed University
“Peter Pan, Pullman, and Potter: Anxieties of Growing Up”
John Pennington, St. Norbert College
“More Darkly Down the Left Arm: The Celtic Influence in the Fairy Plays of J.M. Barrie”
Kayla McKinney Wiggins, Martin Methodist College
2.2 Colonialism—Franklin
Moderator: Divya Saksena
“Blyton out of Blighty: Children’s Literature of the Empire in a Postcolonial World”
Divya Saksena, Middle Tennessee State University
“Everlasting ‘Darkness’?: Echoes of Heart of Darkness in The Year of the Leopard Song”
Osayimwense Osa
12:30-2:00 p.m.—Lunch Break
Session 3: 2:00-3:30
3.1 The Real and the Phony, Part 1—Brentwood
Moderator: Michael Joseph
“‘Fidelity to the Original’: The Authenticity Effects of Disney and Weston Woods”
Kenneth Kidd, University of Florida
“The Book Unbound: Is Liberation Truly Real?”
June Cummins, San Diego State University
“The Importance of Being Phony: The Dialectic of the Sacred in Three Retellings of Jean-Marie
LePrince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast”
Michael Joseph, Rutgers University
3.2 Black Identity—Franklin
Moderator: Laretta Henderson
“Floyd’s Flowers and the Social Construction of Black Children”
Nazera S. Wright, University of Maryland at College Park
“Ebony Jr.!: Soul Food and the Construction of an African American Childhood”
Laretta Henderson, Central Michigan University
“A Feminist Approach to Alice Childress’s Rainbow Jordan: A Woman’s Empowerment in Her
Name”
Julie Gibson, Garner-Webb University
3.3 Approaches to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy—Davidson
Moderator: Ellen Donovan
“Alienating Discourse and Re-enchanting the World: Rousseau’s and Pullman’s Emphatic No”
Patricia L. Baines, Middle Tennessee State University
“Being and Doing in the ‘Republic of Heaven’: Philip Pullman’s Daemons and Object Relations
Theory”
Lee Talley, Rowan University
“Demonized Bodies and Embodied Daemons in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials”
Laura Gall Meador, Illinois State University
3:30—Complimentary Refreshments
Session 4: 4:00-5:30
4.1 The Real and the Phony, Part 2—Brentwood
Moderator: Joseph T. Thomas, Jr.
“Will the Real Whiskered Wit Please Stand Up?: Playboy, Shel Silverstein, and Lafcadio, the
Lion Who Shot Back”
Joseph T. Thomas, Jr., California State University, Northridge
“Ventriloquism”
Richard Flynn, Georgia Southern University
“The ‘Real’ Truth about Imaginative Life”
Lissa Paul, University of New Brunswick
4.2 The Gothic, the Uncanny, and the Grotesque—Franklin
Moderator: Karen Coats
“A Dark Discourse: Contemporary Gothic Conventions within A Series of Unfortunate Events”
Amberyl Malkovich, Illinois State University
“Haunted Houses and Their Unseen Spaces: Neil Gaiman and the Uncanny”
Cathlena Martin, University of Florida
“Child’s Play: Roald Dahl and the Grotesque”
Rachel Robinson, Middle Tennessee State University
4.3 Discovering Identity through Story—Davidson
Moderator: Anne T. Phillips
“Identity and Agency in Adolescent Metafictions: Breaktime and The Gospel According to
Larry”
Jonathan Klassen, Illinois State University
“Learning to Remember: Embedded Narratives, Personal Artifacts, and Silences in Young Adult
Literature”
Aisha Barnes, Western Illinois University
“Spies like Us: Louise Fitzhugh’s Journey from Female Künstlerroman to Male Bildungsroman”
Jennifer Gyurisin, Independent Scholar
6:00-7:00 p.m.—Cocktail Reception—Johnson/Jackson Room, First Floor
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2005
Registration—8:30-9:00 a.m.—Williamson Foyer
Session 5: 9:00-10:30
5.1 Ethnic Identities / National Identities in Literature of the African Diaspora—Brentwood
Moderator: Katherine Capshaw Smith
“Containing Freedom: Appropriation and Racial Paradigms in The Freedman’s Books (1865)”
Paula T. Connolly, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
“‘In the streams of our dreams’: Trauma and National Identity in Haitian American Young Adult
Literature”
Katherine Capshaw Smith, University of Connecticut
“The Beauty of Home in the Work of Meshack Asare”
Nancy Tolson, Illinois State University
5.2 Cross Reading, Part 1—Franklin
Moderator: Karin E. Westman
“Barbarians at the Gate: Rejuveniles, Literary Cross-Readers, and the Invasion of Children’s
Literature”
Karin E. Westman, Kansas State University
“Reading a Readerly Text in a Writerly Fashion: The Case of F. D. Davison’s Red Heifer—A
Story of Men and Cattle (1931)”
Robert C. Petersen, Middle Tennessee State University
“Revising the Comic Strip Child: Peanuts as Cross-Writing”
Charles Hatfield, California State University, Northridge
5.3 Protected and Unprotected Children—Davidson
Moderator: Melissa Gross
“Playing with Fire: Narrative Strategies in Holocaust Literature for Children”
Eve Tal, Hollins University
“Prisoners of Childhood? Child Abuse and the Development of Heroes and Monsters in Ender’s
Game”
Melissa Gross, Florida State University
“Parental Masquerade: The Rejected Child in The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke and A Rough
Shaking by George MacDonald”
Amelia A. Rutledge, George Mason University
10:30 a.m.—Complimentary Refreshments
Session 6: 11:00-12:30
6.1 Lives for Sale: The Commodification of the Animal in Children’s Literature—
Brentwood
Moderator: Cat Yampell
“Black Beauty and the Aestheticization of the Horse”
A. Waller Hastings, Northern State University
“Wild Kingdoms: Threatened Animals and the Other in 1930s Illustrated Books”
Nathalie op de Beeck, Illinois State University
“Swing, Swim, or Soar: The Freedom of Animal—The Trappings of Man”
Cat Yampell, Wayne State University
6.2 Cross Reading, Part 2—Franklin
Moderator: Bansari Mitra
“Multiple Targets: The Implied and Conflicting Audiences of Rascha, Munsch, and Bouchard”
Mike Cadden, Missouri Western State College
“. . . Worth a Thousand Words: David Wiesner’s Wordless Picture Books as Commentary on the
Child as Reader”
Linda G. Benson, Southwest Missouri State University
“A Tale within a Tale: Folkloric Iconography in the Art of Gennady Spirin”
Katrina Imison-Bowker, Purdue University
6.3 Nineteenth-Century Constructions of the Child—Davidson
Moderator: Edwina L. Helton
“Gendered Literacy Constructions: Nineteenth-Century Etiquette Manuals and the History of
Children’s Literature”
Edwina L. Helton, Indiana University East
“Launching a Gender Backlash: E. D. E. N. Southworth’s The Hidden Hand and the Emergence
of American Tomboyism”
Michelle Ann Abate, Hollins University
“Claims and Contracts: Law and Childhood Citizenships in Nineteenth-Century Children’s
Literature of the United States”
Lorinda B. Cohoon, University of Memphis
12:30-2:00 p.m.—Lunch Break
Session 7: 2:00-3:30
7.1 Communities of Readers—Brentwood
Moderator: Fern Kory
"Age before Beauty?: Audiences and Awards for Young Adult Literature”
Fern Kory, Eastern Illinois University
“The Cultural Work of Magical Realism in Three Young Adult Novels”
Don Latham, Florida State University
“From Tom Jones to The Tale of Despereaux: The Insertion of Authorial ‘Asides’ in Text”
Eliza T. Dresang, Florida State University
7.2 The Author Behind the Text—Franklin
Moderator: Philip Nel
“License to Imagine: The Charmed Childhood of Ruth Krauss”
Philip Nel, Kansas State University
“Appalachian Leftist: May Justus’s Children’s Books Promoting Civil Rights and Social Justice”
Bené Scanlon Cox, Middle Tennessee State University
“History and Historicism: Mark Twain and Louisa May Alcott”
Roberta Seelinger Trites, Illinois State University
7.3 American Girls Don’t Need Dolls: Examining, Voicing, and Defining the American
Girl—Davidson
Moderator: Susan Larkin
“The American Girl and the Hunt for the Witchy Woman”
Jennifer Lee Witt, Illinois State University
“Still on the Frontier: The Little House Books as Women’s Texts”
Susan Larkin, Illinois State University
“Ophelia Speaks: The Girls of Generation Y Write Themselves”
Jennie Miskec, Illinois State University
3:30—Complimentary Refreshments
Session 8: 4:00-5:30
Plenary Session—Tennessee Room
Welcoming Remarks
William Connelly, English Department Chair, Middle Tennessee State University
"Toward a Socially Responsible Literary Theory: Historical Inquiry, Artistic Engagement,
Social Commitment"
Donnarae MacCann
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2005
Session 9: 8:00-9:00
Scholarly Editing—Brentwood
“Editing Little Women”
Gregory Eiselein and Anne K. Phillips, Kansas State University
Session 10: 9:00-10:30
10.1 Visual and Verbal Complexities—Brentwood
Moderator: Carole Brown Knuth
“Deconstructing Patriarchal Paradigms: Feminist Perspectives in the Verbal and Visual
Narratives of Pat Mora’s A Library for Juana”
Carole Brown Knuth, Buffalo State College
“Exploring the Paratext: The Function of the Prologue and Epilogue in Peter Sis’s A Small Tall
Tale from the Far Far North”
Katie E. Strode, University of Connecticut
“Paul Rand: A New Picture Book Alphabet”
George Bodmer, Indiana University Northwest
10.2 The Third Generation—Franklin
Moderator: Michelle Pagni Stewart
“Theorizing the Third Generation: The Case for Asian American Children’s Literature”
Michelle Pagni Stewart, Mt. San Jacinto College
“Articulating Complexity: The American Civil Rights Movement in Children’s Literature”
Joyce C. Smith, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
“‘Twice as Much Oxygen’: Love and Reconciliation in Sara Ryan’s Empress of the World”
Caroline E. Jones, Texas State University
10.3 Constructions of Childhood—Davidson
Moderator: Naomi J. Wood
“Possibility and Prohibition: Childhood, Agency, and Genre in Literature for Children”
Naomi J. Wood, Kansas State University
“An Anatomy of Misopaedia”
Judith Plotz and Lauren Shababb, George Washington University
“Baby Crack for the New Millennium: The Baby Einstein Empire”
Michelle H. Martin, Clemson University
10:30 a.m.—Complimentary Refreshments
Session 11: 11:00-12:30
11.1 Depictions of the Other—Brentwood
Moderator: Ruth Carver Capasso
“The Portrayal of Turks in German Young Adult Literature from 1970 to the Present”
Stephanie Hepner, Carnegie Mellon University
“The Creole in French Nineteenth-Century Children’s Literature”
Ruth Carver Capasso, Kent State University
“Seeing Gay: A Decade of Alyson Publications Featuring Picture Books with Gay/Lesbian
Characters and Themes”
Sharon Scapple, Minnesota State University, Moorhead
11.2 Landscape and Identity—Franklin
Moderator: Diane Stevenson
“The Sense of Place Created through Text and Image in Tom Feelings’s Soul Looks Back in
Wonder”
Dianne Johnson, University of South Carolina
“‘Nobody’s Place but Your Own’: Place and Geographical Identity in Mildred Taylor’s Logan
Family Novels”
Kara Keeling, Christopher Newport University
“When Your Home Is a Ghetto; When Your Home Is a Barrio”
Diane Stevenson, The University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Coast Campus
11.3 Power and Language—Davidson
Moderator: Jameela Lares
“‘Elsewhere’ Is Here and Now: The Ideological Impetus in Lois Lowry’s The Giver”
Susan Stewart, Texas A & M University—Commerce
“‘Carelessly’: Linguistic Competence in Winnie-the-Pooh”
Jameela Lares, The University of Southern Mississippi
“The Church Vicarious: Elizabeth Goudge and the Problem of the Fantastic in Children’s
Literature”
Erica Obey, City College of New York
Lunch Break 12:30-2:00
Session 12: 2:00-3:30
12.1 Play and Humor—Brentwood
Moderator: Karen Coats
“Children at Play in the Fields of War”
Anita Tarr, Illinois State University
“What’s So Funny ‘Bout Poo, Love, and Understanding?: Potty Humor and Beyond in Early
Grade Fiction”
Karen Coats, Illinois State University
12.2 Cultural Stories—Franklin
Moderator: Craig Werner
“Discovery through Storytelling: Pat Mora’s Tomás and the Library Lady and The Rainbow
Tulip”
Craig Werner, Buffalo State College
“The West Indian Wisdom of James Berry: Poetry in Prose”
J. D. Stahl, Virginia Tech
“Mexican Migrant Workers in North America: An Analysis of Themes in Children’s Literature”
Lynne Barrett, Florida State University
12.3 Power and Domination—Davidson
Moderator: Luke Springman
“Race, Technology, and the Exotic Imagination in German Popular Youth Culture of the Weimar
Republic”
Luke Springman, Bloomsburg University
“Embracing the Bars: Gaining Empowerment from Within Captivity”
Heidi Oldenburger, Illinois State University
“‘Only the Best Blood Should Be Passed On’: Human and Equine Sexuality in My Friend
Flicka”
Christine Doyle, Central Connecticut State University
Session 13: 4:00-5:30
Plenary Session—Brentwood
Roundtable Discussion: “Current Trends in Ethnic Children’s Literature”
Donnarae MacCann, Nancy Tolson, June Cummins
Quick Reference
Thursday, March 31
8:00-9:00 a.m. Registration
9:00-10:30 a.m. Session 1 (Session 1.1 in Brentwood, 1.2 in Franklin, 1.3 in Davidson)
10:30-11:00 a.m. Complimentary Refreshments
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Session 2 (Session 2.1 in Brentwood, 2.2 in Franklin)
12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00-3:30 p.m. Session 3 (Session 3.1 in Brentwood, 3.2 in Franklin, 3.3 in Davidson)
3:30-4:00 p.m. Complimentary Refreshments
4:00-5:30 p.m. Session 4 (Session 4.1 in Brentwood, 4.2 in Franklin, 4.3 in Davidson)
6:00-7:00 Cocktail Reception (Johnson/Jackson Room, First Floor)
Friday, April 1
8:30-9:00 a.m. Registration
9:00-10:30 a.m. Session 5 (Session 5.1 in Brentwood, 5.2 in Franklin, 5.3 in Davidson)
10:30-11:00 a.m. Complimentary Refreshments
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Session 6 (Session 6.1 in Brentwood, 6.2 in Franklin, 6.3 in Davidson)
12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00-3:30 p.m. Session 7 (Session 7.1 in Brentwood, 7.2 in Franklin, 7.3 in Davidson)
3:30-4:00 p.m. Complimentary Refreshments
4:00-5:30 p.m. Session 8 - Plenary Session (Tennessee Room, Lobby Floor)
Saturday, April 2
8:00-9:00 a.m. Session 9 – Scholarly Editing (Brentwood)
9:00-10:30 a.m. Session 10 (Session 10.1 in Brentwood, 10.2 in Franklin, 10.3 in Davidson)
10:30-11:00 a.m. Complimentary Refreshments
11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Session 11 (Session 11.1 in Brentwood, 11.2 in Franklin, 11.3 in
Davidson)
12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00-3:30 p.m. Session 12 (Session 12.1 in Brentwood, 12.2 in Franklin, 12.3 in Davidson)
3:30-4:00 p.m. Complimentary Refreshments
4:00-5:30 p.m. Session 13 - Plenary Roundtable Session (Brentwood)