In the 21st century, gothic has become a significant part of children's and young adult literature. Like gothic novels for adults, children's gothic literature relates to the intellectual world and ideas of its time. In Haunted Childhood, literary scholar Peter Kostenniemi examines how the child is portrayed in gothic children's literature and how it relates to contemporary notions of childhood. With a specific focus on Scandinavian publications, the study highlights often overlooked material. Through explorations of ghost stories, zombie literature, and other gothic subgenres, it discusses how the texts form a distorted mirror where images of the child are both reproduced and questioned. Perceptions of the child's freedom, agency, and competence are processed in the gothic texts, while normative development and relationships with the adult world are problematized. The images of the child that emerge are characterized by the characteristic ambivalence of gothic, which highlights a contemporary tug-of-war between different, sometimes contradictory ideas about what characterizes childhood in the 21st century.

Peter Kostenniemi (b. 1980) is a literary scholar active at Stockholm University. Haunted Childhood. Images of the child in gothic children's literature is his doctoral dissertation.

OTHER:
Media type: Book
Binding type: Paperback
Author: Peter Kostenniemi
Illustrator: Hans Arnold
Publisher: Makadam förlag
Language: Swedish
Extent: 303 pages
Dimensions (wxhxd): 162x225x25 mm
Weight: 694 grams
Illustrated: Yes
Series: Publications of the Swedish Institute for Children's Books 158

Barcode: 9789170613760
SKU: 769957