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  • Introduction
  • David Russell, Karin Westman, and Naomi Wood

This issue of The Lion and the Unicorn takes us into the archives of children's literature.

In his essay "The Child, the Scholar, and the Children's Literature Archive," Kenneth Kidd proposes that, for the field of children's literature, the archive "operates not unlike the ideas of the classic and the canon, which, for all their problematic aspects, have helped shore up children's literature as a creative and critical field." Kidd draws upon a range of sources—the material history of selected archives, the theories of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, his own experiences at various collections, including the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's Literature at the University of Florida—to map the nexus of personal, professional, and cultural energies that create the children's literature archive in the present day.

The archival impulse—to reveal that which has been hidden from view, to find new knowledge within the past—informs the other three essays in this issue. In "Probing Pioneer Girl Sleuths: Puck Larsson and Nancy Drew in 1950s Girls' Book Series in Sweden," Tilda Forselius recovers a moment in 1950s Sweden when two girl detectives were introduced to young female readers: Puck Larsson and Nancy Drew. A comparison of their narrative, style, and characterization helps to identify what makes Nancy Drew such a long-lasting popular cultural phenomenon; it also considers the value of the less popular but still thoughtful depiction in Puck Larsson of a young Swedish girl's realistic struggles with class and gender inequality.

Sarah Cantrell provides international context for another popular series in her essay "Harry Potter Goes to France: Exploring Erik L'Homme's Le Livre des Étoiles (Book of the Stars)." An avowed fan of Rowling's Harry Potter, L'Homme crafts his own fantasy series (2001-3) and, in turn, offers a mirror not only to contemporary French culture but also to Rowling's fantasy landscape. Of particular note, in Cantrell's reading, is the representation of "the Other" in both series—an issue for the fantasy [End Page v] genre in general and for the respective national literary traditions of Rowling and L'Homme.

Finally, to shine new light on three authors of the past, Ruth Y. Jenkins's essay "Imagining the Abject in Kingsley, MacDonald, and Carroll" uses Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection to examine its presence and function in the work of these three Victorian fantasists. Arguing that the three writers demonstrate the structuring function of abjection in adolescence and, by extension, society, Jenkins considers the way the abject constitutes identity even as it is symbolically expelled. Each fantasy writer offers a distinctive view of the degree to which abjection may support or undermine personal identity and social stability.

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions for the journal. Please contact us at <lionunicorn@ksu.edu>. [End Page vi]

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