Dissertations of Note
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Apgar points out that Campe was "the eighteenth century's most prolific and successful children's author (1746–1818)" and "explores the relationship between the explosion in published travel accounts and the birth of children's literature in Germany during the final three decades of the Eighteenth Century." He gives particular importance to Campe's three most popular works: Robinson der Jüngere; Die Entdeckung von Amerika. Ein angenehmes und nützliches Lesebuch für Kinder und junge Leute; and Sammlung interessanter und zweckmäßig abgefaßter Reisebeschreibungen für die Jugend [Robinson the Younger; The Discovery of America: A Pleasant and Useful Reader for Children and Young People; and A Collection of Interesting and Practically Formulated Travelogues for the Young]. He also stresses the significance of Enlightenment ideology and "exotic imagery" in Campe's travel stories.
Bae looks at "the development of cultural representation of the shojo, or the adolescent girl, as seen in shojo zasshi, or Japanese girls' magazines." As young females became more literate following the Second World War, culture changed, and a mass market for literature for adolescent girls developed in Japan. Regardless, "modern models of feminine propriety" correspond to "sheltered tutelage"—"a blend of various institutional norms that defined women's relationship to society, [including] Victorian domesticity and medical delineations of hygiene, virginity, and reproduction. . . ."
Beissel Heath "explores the Victorian discourse of play and playfulness, showing that play not only reflects Victorian beliefs, values, attitudes, and responses, but it also helped to shape and direct them." Ultimately, she demonstrates how "sports and games are used to explore the possibility of social or individual freedom, and used as social equalizers between races, classes, genders, and ages, but are at the same time considered with much anxiety [and] are the sites of cultural tension and discomfort about those very freedoms and equalities."
Bell's findings highlight the values of involvement in "creative activities, freedom of choice, the assumption of responsibility, working on collaborative enterprises, and the development of a sense of competency," things that boys often miss by not involving themselves in sympathetic or empathetic experiences.
Among other things, Berrey looks at "the revision of [Fanny] Fern's adult articles into children's sketches." She also studies the work of Luis P. Senarens, [End Page 300] known as "Noname" and purported to be the American Jules Verne, his sensational literature for children, and "the boys and girls who read, and wrote back to cheap, serialized fiction."
"Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events has been wildly popular among child readers. This is particularly interesting given the author's dire and woeful tone. This investigation [describes] the books using a Kleinian lens, chosen because of the books' themes of anxiety, mourning, whole-object relatedness, regret, morality, and creativity. Furthermore, using Bettelheim as a basis, this investigation [suggests] ways in which the books may contribute to the psychological development of children." In conclusion, Blettner discusses the limitations of his study.
