The Voice of the Narrator in Children's Literature: Insights from Writers and CriticsCharlott Otten, Gary D. Schmidt As Otten and Schmidt note in their preface, voice is a broad metaphor. Thus the 41 essays in this collection provide varied approaches, examining point of view, focus, selection of details, tone, and even illustrations as part of the narrative identity. Eight genres, including picture books, fantasy, realism, and biography, receive separate study in generally brief articles by writers and more substantial analyses by critics. . . . In her contribution, Jill Paton Walsh describes contemporary criticism as an `impenetrable thicket of technical terms.' In most cases, the critics here avoid jargon. They speak clearly, offering practical criticsm accessible to anyone seriously concerned about narrative technique in children's literature. Choice |
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... comes out of an oral culture . Shaped by generations of storytellers , the mythology and folklore of a culture are con- stantly revised by the voices that take up their telling . As new narrators come to the stories , the tales are ...
... comes to the narrative with certain expectations . The reader expects Taran to be nobly born , expects Taran not to be merely an assistant pigkeeper , suspects Taran to have been a prince all along . But Alexander's narrator departs ...
... come a historical figure . The vitality of the narrator , Lunn writes , comes instead from the passion of the author for an imaginary figure . Joan Blos , unlike many other writers of historical fiction , has created the historical ...
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Narrating Chaucer Grimm New England | 25 |
Finding the Narrative Voice through Dramatically | 32 |
Copyright | |
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