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A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S Throughout the writing of this book, I have been blessed with many good friends, good colleagues, and good critics who have helped re- fine and shape the final product. J. D. Stahl and Bob Siegle introduced me to the possibility of studying children’s literature and Lacanian theory together . Marshall Alcorn, Inez Azar, Peter Caws, Meena Khorana, Judith Plotz, Bob Samuels, and Gail Weiss read and critiqued an early version of the manuscript. Prasenjit Gupta met with me to discuss the proposal, and he and Holly Carver of the University of Iowa Press have been enthusiastic throughout the entire project. I’d also like to thank Rod McGillis and jan jagodzinski for their generous readings, Bobbe Needham for her inspired copyediting , and Charlotte Wright for making the whole process run smoothly. Finally, Roberta Seelinger Trites—my friend, my mentor, my sister of the heart—has been unfailingly supportive of my work. Many of the ideas in these chapters have been presented at meetings of the International Children’s Literature Association, the Association for the Psychoanalysis of Culture and Society, and the Modern Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature conferences. I would like to thank the members and officers of those organizations for the work they do to keep our disciplines vibrant. Time and financial support for work on the manuscript was provided by Illinois State University’s University Research Grant program and the Calvin College Summer Seminars for Christian Scholarship, the latter reminding me that my scholarship, rightly regarded, can be an act of worship. Most of all, however, this work would not have been possible without my family. My parents, Joe and Dawn Moser, have never denied any request for babysitting or a free meal, and their generous and loving support has been an unfailing constant in my life. My husband, Will, is an amazingly intuitive philosopher; I need only talk to him and my world is made larger and more beautiful. And he seems to have passed this happy gift along to our girls. In most acknowledgments one reads, the writer thanks and apologizes to his or her children, who gave up time together so that the writer could finish the book. My children, thankfully, would have none of that. Much of this book was written with a child on my lap. Their persistent and entirely legitimate demands for time and attention, their veritable assaults of love, taught me more about the theories of desire and subjectivity than any published study, and for this I am truly indebted to them. Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Blair. You are brilliant. x | acknowled gment s ...

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