Rereading Childhood Books

Alison Waller is Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton, UK. She is the author of Constructions of Adolescence in Fantastic Realism (2009).

• AcknowledgementsIntroduction: ExcavatingParacanons and the lifelong reading actNostalgia, memoirs and re-memoryingExperiments in rereadingRereading Childhood Books: A Poetics1. The reading sceneMemory and the reading sceneChildhood reading and reminiscenceChildhood books and recollectionRereading and recognitionReconstructing through rereadingConclusion2. The life spaceThe life space and autotopographyCo-readingLearning to readSchool and homeReading spacesMapping readingConclusion3. Affective tracesAffective traces and resonancePleasuresPassionsGriefFearDesire and boredomConclusion 4. Rereading attitudesThe uses of childhood books and rereading attitudesNostalgiaRereading with childrenAs scholarsUnderstanding literary lifeConclusion5. Transforming, misremembering, forgettingTransformed textsMaterial mismatchesTranslations and transmediationsForgetting and anamnesisConclusionConclusion: The lifelong reading actFuture directionsFinal wordsAppendix: ParicipantsNotesBibliographyIndex

Rereading Childhood Books offers a rich and sophisticated account of the many ways in which our reading lives are woven into our regular daily existence, not just at any particular moment but over a reading lifetime…[Waller’s] evocation of the reading scene, the life space, and the affective traces that allow a childhood book to resonate throughout a lifetime is potent and persuasive. Her argument that children's literature (using the term broadly to include that paracanon as well as the masterpieces) may resonate throughout a lifespan, through both memory and re-engagement in multiple readings, is highly significant and demonstrates the intellectual value of talking with readers as well as engaging with the texts…This is a volume that I am very glad to add to my shelf.