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Locating Girlhood in Children's Literature Louise Hélène Johnson Mphil University of York English Sept

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Locating Girlhood in Children's Literature Louise Hélène Johnson Mphil University of York English Sept A Space to Be Herself: Locating Girlhood in Children's Literature Louise Hélène Johnson MPhil University of York English September 2017 Abstract This thesis argues that the representation of both the 'girl' and 'girlhood' within children's literature can be best understood through a reading of space and place. The opening chapter considers the Golden Age of children's literature, and investigates The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and four of Angela Brazil's most typical school stories: The Fortunes of Philippa, For the Sake of the School, The Mystery of the Moated Grange and The School in the Forest. It is argued that these stories represent an attempt to mediate between an unorthodox idea of girlhood and an Arcadian stereotype whilst effectively rendering neither. The second chapter considers the mid-twentieth century and argues for a tentative aesthetic of liberation, substantiated through analyses of the St Clare’s and Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton, and A Little Love Song by Michelle Magorian. Chapter three shifts towards the contemporary period of children's literature with analyses of Murder is Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens, and My Name is Mina by David Almond, and argues that the contemporary notion of girlhood is characterised by the apparently contradictory idea of permitted transgression. It is concluded that the nature of girlhood within children's literature faces an imminent crisis; whether to consolidate the perspective of the child to the exclusion of the adult, or to pursue an ever greater aetonormative perspective. The findings of this thesis also come to question the role of the golden age within children's literature and suggests that rather than reading a golden age as temporally definite, it can be, instead, recognised thematically. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 4 Author’s Declaration .................................................................................................................. 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter Outline ........................................................................................................................ 19 Chapter One: Looking for Arcadia ........................................................................................... 23 Chapter Two: A Landscape of Tentative Liberation ................................................................. 70 Chapter Three: The Age of Transgression.............................................................................. 116 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 157 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Richard Walsh, for his support, patience and sense of humour throughout this process. I am especially grateful to Francesca Arnavas, Claire Boardman and Yu-Hua Yen who have provided encouragement, cake and support along the way. I would not have achieved this without you all. I would also like to pay tribute to my colleagues both real and virtual in the children’s literature community. In particular, I would like to thank Alison Baker, Jim Dean, Matt Finch, Melanie McGilloway and Zoe Toft who have all made me better in what I do. And finally, I would like to thank my family without whom none of this would have been remotely achievable. They are wonderful. Don’t tell them. 4 Author’s Declaration I declare that this thesis is a presentation of original work and I am the sole author. This work has not previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, University. All sources are acknowledged as References. 5 Introduction In his protohistory of children's literature, Roger Lancelyn Green writes of his "attempt to chart some of the more or less definite islands off a portion of the mainland of our more generally recognized literary heritage" (Green 60). It is an intriguing spatial metaphor which ultimately leads him towards conceptualising and recognising the 'Golden Age' of children's literature for the first time.1 It is, I suggest, a metaphor that has not yet been fully explored. This thesis attempts to redress that deficit and apply it towards notions of both the 'girl' and of 'girlhood' within children's literature, whilst also posing a challenge to dominant paradigms of periodization within the sector. It argues that the representation of the girl and girlhood within children's literature can be best understood through a reading of place and space. It concludes that children's literature faces an increasing crisis centring on the influence of the adult literature; whether to consolidate the idea of the girl and her associated girlhood as a discrete identity, or to pursue an increasing homogeneity between girlhood and adulthood. I shall claim that the fundamental relationship between space, place and girlhood functions as a metaphor somewhat akin to the relationship between human and ‘daemon’ in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series (1995-2000). Daemons are creatures with an animal-shaped body and a deep personal connection to a specific human individual (Colás 50). These daemons shift through a range of animal identities before finally settling into a 1The Golden Age is a recognised term in children's literature, referring to the stylistic shift of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century when children's literature moved from didacticism and moralising towards writing for the child as a recognisable figure in their own right (Carpenter; Green). This shift, in combination with a wider societal growth in literacy, shaped what is recognised as children's literature today. 6 fixed and permanent shape upon their human reaching adulthood. Both the daemon and their partner feel the pains and emotions of the other on a physical and immediate level, and the daemon's final form reflects the characteristics and emotional makeup of its adult human. The daemon thus comes to function as a metaphorical and physical representation of an individual's identity, sexuality and selfhood. It is through the relationship between human characters and their daemons that the practical and spiritual worlds of the His Dark Materials novels are represented, navigated and challenged (Greenwell 99). I appropriate the characteristics of this relationship and argue that just as the daemon adopts a new form depending on the psychological makeup and life-experiences of their paired human, an understanding of the girl and girlhood can be gained through an understanding of space and place. From a methodological perspective, this thesis locates itself squarely within the "material turn" of children's literature (Beauvais and Nikolajeva 3). Such work attempts to adopt a firmly inter-disciplinary approach, and to deny the critical and theoretical bottlenecks that can be perpetuated by rigid, often unintentionally canonical and "illegitimate" divisions (4). Thus, in hybridizing close reading, a mode of analysis familiar to the humanities, with case study theory, an approach perhaps more familiar to quantitative and empirically grounded disciplines, I attempt to do precisely this. I utilise case study theory in order to help focus on the "relationships and process" embedded in my texts, investigate them with "multiple methods" and to develop a "holistic interpretation" of the representation of space and place within children's literature as opposed to concerning myself with the "isolated factors" of such (Denscombe 32). In partnership with this approach, I look towards close reading to help mediate and concretize my interpretations 7 throughout this thesis, capitalising on children's literature's increasingly pronounced reliance upon post-modern technique (Nikolajeva, "Exit Children’s Literature" 221). As Brian Alderson reminds us, it is all too easy to adopt an overly elaborate and subsequently restrictive vocabulary of interpretation when considering children's literature, and so this mixed method approach with its interdisciplinary scope and practical outlines, hopes to deny those instances where "nobody knows what you are talking about, but it really sounds terrific." (249). In order for this study to break new scholarly ground and indeed, to satisfactorily realise its arguments, it is necessary to resist the temptation to work solely within the pre- established canon. In consequence of this, many of my selected texts lack a substantial critical context despite their marked popular appeal. In this thesis, I will show how the representation of space and place within these texts is characteristic of their respective periods of production and substantiate this argument on a case-by-case basis. An obvious rebuttal to this approach might be to say that these texts are unrepresentative of general trends; however my reading of under studied texts is complemented by attention to texts with a much more prominent critical profile, so that the thesis mediates between the canonical and the marginal, whilst resisting the temptation to base interpretation on a narrow footing in
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