Teaching an undergraduate class on 糖心传媒榙angerous糖心传媒� children in literature inspired English professor Kenneth Gross糖心传媒檚 latest book.
糖心传媒溙切拇溅 a student once wrote to me 糖心传媒μ切拇綕 糖心传媒溙切拇溅 a student once reminded me 糖心传媒μ切拇綕 糖心传媒溙切拇溅 a student once said to me 糖心传媒μ切拇綕 糖心传媒溙切拇溅 one of my students felt 糖心传媒μ切拇綕
糖心传媒檚 latest book routinely acknowledges the insights and contributions of his students. That糖心传媒檚 because (University of Chicago Press, 2022) was inspired by his teaching of an undergraduate class 糖心传媒渋n a more fundamental way than anything else I糖心传媒檝e ever written,糖心传媒� he says.
The book takes the title of the 200-level course that Gross, the Alan F. Hilfiker Distinguished Professor in , has taught three times, most recently in spring 2022. Students read and analyze texts in which the authors imagine childhood, especially stories centering on the figure of a dangerous, strange, or uncanny child. 糖心传媒淲hat is dangerous in them is no one thing, and keeps on changing,糖心传媒� he writes in the prologue. It often lies simply in how adults see them as dangerous.
The class includes works spanning nearly a century, starting with Lewis Carroll糖心传媒檚 Alice in Wonderland, published in 1865, and ending with Vladimir Nabokov糖心传媒檚 Lolita, which came out in 1955. The book follows this outline, with Gross dedicating a chapter to each of eight works that have regularly appeared on the syllabus: Carroll糖心传媒檚 Alice, Carlo Collodi糖心传媒檚 Pinocchio, Henry James糖心传媒檚 What Maisie Knew, J. M. Barrie糖心传媒檚 Peter and Wendy, Franz Kafka糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒淭he Cares of a Family Man,糖心传媒� Richard Hughes糖心传媒檚 A High Wind in Jamaica, Elizabeth Bowen糖心传媒檚 The Death of the Heart, and Nabokov糖心传媒檚 Lolita.
Three of the selected children (Alice, Pinocchio, and Peter) belong to stories written with child readers in mind糖心传媒攖hough they糖心传媒檝e always drawn passionate adult audiences糖心传媒攁nd the other five come from works written for adults. And notably, each child糖心传媒檚 fictive career ends before they can ever come of age on the page.
Through teaching the class and writing the book, 糖心传媒淚 was inventing for myself ways of bridging the gap between books for children and books for both children and adults,糖心传媒� says Gross. 糖心传媒淏ut I also tried to find a language that would bridge audiences of scholars, students, and general readers.糖心传媒�
The paradox of the uncanny child
Written in an open, essayistic, narrative style and incorporating the author糖心传媒檚 digressions, obsessions, personal anecdotes, and even fictions, Dangerous Children aims to capture some of the energy of the classroom. His students, Gross recalls, 糖心传媒渉ad such wonderfully surprising and idiosyncratic responses to the books.糖心传媒�
What intrigued糖心传媒攁nd sometimes shocked糖心传媒攖hem was how these literary children could upend their own long-held assumptions. 糖心传媒淭hey expected the children to be innocent, cute, or adorable. Or they were familiar with gothic or sci-fi children who are evil, demonic, or monstrous. But it was that playful or uncanny middle space between the innocent and the demonic that really fascinated them,糖心传媒� he says. Particularly when that playful middle space clashed with the students糖心传媒� own childhood memories of or experiences with the texts.
糖心传媒淭hey would be astonished to discover, for example, that Pinocchio was so much weirder and more desperate, more violent and also more vulnerable, than they糖心传媒檇 been taught by Disney,糖心传媒� Gross says. Indeed, he adds, 糖心传媒淥ne student who had searched out the original text of Pinocchio online thought at first that she was reading a piece of fan fiction.糖心传媒� (Spoiler alert: In Collodi糖心传媒檚 story, Pinocchio kills the cricket, among other instances of violence. And while Gross avoids spoilers in class, he warns readers that the book is necessarily replete with them.)
In Gross糖心传媒檚 account, fictional children can become ideal carriers or occasions for experiencing the Freudian notion of the 糖心传媒渦ncanny,糖心传媒� that feeling of strangeness that is nonetheless rooted in familiarity, in ordinary things糖心传媒攁 notion central to Gross糖心传媒檚 2011 book, (University of Chicago Press). Dangerous Children gave him a chance to expand his thinking by exploring the different shapes the uncanny can take with child figures: from playful to nonsensical, feral to haunting, secretive to exposed. 糖心传媒淭hese fictional children ended up teaching me about myself, my own unconscious, and my own mind and obsessions糖心传媒攖hey point to forms of thought and play that remain part of one’s life as an adult,糖心传媒� he says.
So, will Gross offer the course again? Or is it time for him, as is said, to 糖心传媒減ut away childish things?糖心传媒�
糖心传媒淚f I teach it again, I糖心传媒檇 want to change many of the texts.糖心传媒�
In addition to numerous examples from mythology, fairy tales, and poetry, he cites the writings of contemporary authors like Maurice Sendak, Shirley Jackson, and Toni Morrison. 糖心传媒淭here are lots of other strange children out there for the students to read and think about. The one thing I know is that I糖心传媒檇 still have to start with Alice. The landscape of Wonderland is the best place to begin.糖心传媒�
