Picture-Book Professors: Academia and Children's Literature

    Research output: Book/ReportBook

    Abstract

    How is academia portrayed in children’s literature? This Element ambitiously surveys fictional professors in texts marketed towards children. Professors are overwhelmingly white and male, tending to be elderly scientists who fall into three stereotypes: the vehicle to explain scientific facts, the baffled genius, and the evil madman. By the late twentieth century, the stereotype of the male, mad, muddlehead, called Professor SomethingDumb, is formed in humorous yet pejorative fashion. This Element provides a publishing history of the role of academics in children’s literature, questioning the book culture which promotes the enforcement of stereotypes regarding intellectual expertise in children’s media.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationCambridge, UK
    PublisherCambridge University Press
    Number of pages304
    ISBN (Electronic)9781108529501
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 22 Oct 2018

    Publication series

    NameElements in Publishing and Book Culture
    PublisherCambridge University Press

    Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

    • children's literature
    • literary studies
    • literature
    • feminism
    • representation

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