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LITTLE RED READINGS: Historical Materialist Perspectives on Children's Literature. Ed. by Angela E. Hubler. Series: Children's Literature Association series. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 2014. 276 pages. ISBN 978-1-61703-987-4.
A plethora of studies about children's literature focuses on gender and race. In Little Red Readings, the contributors analyze these aspects as well as the question of class from a (feminist) historical materialist perspective. They argue that there are certain inequalities that children have faced as a consequence of the development of capitalism but that these issues have not been explored and discussed thor- oughly and overtly in children's literature studies. Hence, by offering a Marxist perspective on class struggle and inequality, the thirteen essays in the book aspire to contribute "to the development of historical materialist approaches to children's literature".
In the introduction, Editor Angela E. Hubler, associate professor of Women's Studies at Kansas University, asserts that the volume seeks to exemplify different historical materialist approaches to children's literature. She begins by providing a solid definition of historical materialism-referring to well-known Anglo-American literary critics like Robert C. Tucker, Raymond Williams, and Jack Zipes-and argues that the lack of knowledge of historical materialism is related to "the predominance of poststructuralist, or more broadly postmodernist theory within the study of literature". She also enhances her...