Dissertations of Note
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Adelman contends that Bergson's essay on "Laughter" (1900) is a good standard for evaluating comic elements in Alice and Looking-Glass. "In fact, the essay may also prove invaluable to the understanding and appreciation of comic devices utilized by contemporary writers of children's literature." Adelman applies Bergson's principles to both works, as well as to the suppressed "Wasp in a Wig" from the latter work and to the Tenniel illustrations, while emphasizing the repetition that is fundamental to Carroll's humor. The last chapter of the dissertation "presents the full text of the parodies which Carroll created . . . as well as the text of the poems which inspired them."
This work, in four chapters, studies the "domestication" of the artist in children's fiction from Alcott through A Bridge to Terabithia and concludes that children, by example, are given very little incentives to become artists based on the portrayal of artists in American children's fiction. The first chapter illustrates the theme of familial affection linked to the artist in Alcott's Little Women, Jo's Boys, "Psyche's Art," and "A Country Christmas." The second shows artists as naturally gifted and learning the "lessons of domestication regarding the role of the artist in society." Works studied are Dobry, Johnny Tremain, Adam of the Road, and The Silver Pencil. The third chapter, a study of The Door in the Wall, A Bridge to Terabithia, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Harriet the Spy, suggests that the artist uses art as therapy. The last chapter, and the most complex, portrays art as a component either of discipline or of experience. Alberghene treats, among others, Charlotte's Web, Abel's Island, The Second Mrs. Giaconda, and The Cat Who Went to Heaven, concluding that "the child reader [is not encouraged] to identify with the artist; the reader is instead encouraged to identify with a character who is dependent on the domestic or self-sacrificing aspects of the artist's personality." Those few authors who allow the child to sympathize or empathize with the artist stress "the artist's discipline and loyalty to family and friends."
At her death in 1955 Charlotte Chorpenning was probably the most influential person in children's theatre in the United States. She is recognized as a writer of plays for children and adults, poet, teacher of a well-known class in play-writing, director, and dramatic theorist. Bedard's dissertation explores her early life, her work with George Pierce Baker and his Workshop 47, her influence on the Goodman Theatre programs for children in Chicago, her tenure at Northwestern University, and, preeminently, her major role in the Children's Theatre Press, the Children's World Theatre, the Children's Theatre of Evanston, the former CTC, and her influence on the Junior Leagues' touring companies for children. [End Page 211] Bedard concludes that "through her work with a wide scope of children's theatre organizations, and the large number of popular plays that she wrote, her influence touched virtually every facet" of the children's theatre field. His study is based on correspondence, interviews, archives, and Chorpenning's many works for children and adults.
Botsford traces the history of the Toone Marionette Theatre from the early nineteenth century to the present, basically dividing her study into two parts: early history through the influence of Michel de Ghelderode, the famous Belgian playwright, and recent history under the influence of Jose Geal, an intrepid modernizer and innovator. It is likely that the Toone Marionette Theatre would have succumbed...
