Kipling's Children's Literature

Sue Walsh is a lecturer in the Department of English and American Literature at the University of Reading, UK.

• Contents: Introduction; on children's books and 'mature' stories; The child as colonized or the colonized as child?; Translating 'animal' or reading the 'other' in Kipling's 'Mowgli ' stories; A child speaking to children? Biographical readings; The oral and the written in the 'Taffy' stories; Becoming 'civilized': the child and the primitive; 'And it was so - just so - a long time ago'?: Kipling and history; Bibliography; Index.

'This exciting study interrogates the concept of "children's literature", revealing the richness and ambiguity of Kipling's work in this genre. Sue Walsh challenges naive and simplistic assumptions about childhood, and reductive biographical approaches to children's literature. In doing so, she illuminates central issues of language, identity and interpretation.' Tess Cosslett, Lancaster University, UK ’There is far more to the analyses presented in this book that I have space to describe... [the book has] thought-provoking comments... It should also be required reading for most of the authors listed in the Bibliography.’ Kipling Journal '... a welcome addition to Kipling criticism as it challenges interpretations based solely on assumptions about the author’s views and feelings or the truthfulness of the stories, and shows that there may be other avenues worth exploring.' International Centre for Research in Children's Literature ’The intense focus on the relationship between Kipling’s words and his illustrations offers an invigorating topic for study. More specifically, Walsh’s responses to previous critics’ interpretation of this relationship analyse in depth tales from the Just So Stories which are not commonly afforded such attention. The particular emphasis she gives to the disparity between the aural/oral and written qualities of the tales will offer the reader a considered response to the tales. ...Her familiarity with available secondary sources reinforces her main argument, bringing an additional depth to the monograph and accentuating that this work is indeed the culmination of many years of vigorous thought.’ English Studies