I am an independent scholar and author with no institutional funding. Please, consider supporting me on Patreon so I can continue to do the work. Thank you!
Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation: Narratives of Civilization and Wilderness
- 2018 (February 5): Paperback ISBN 9781138547810 (286 pages)
- 2015 (March 9): Hardcover ISBN 9780415661102 (274 pages)
- 2014 (October): Open access, online: the introduction chapter: “The Root of It All” (17 pages)
Page Contents
- Book Description
- Table of contents
- Endorsements
- Reviews
- Interview reviews
- Translations
- Related subjects
- Book tour
Book Description
This study of children’s literature as knowledge, culture, and social foundation bridges the gap between science and literature and examines the interconnectedness of fiction and reality as a two-way road. The book investigates how the civilized narrative orders experience by means of segregation, domestication, breeding, and extermination, arguing instead that the stories and narratives of wilderness project chaos and infinite possibilities for experiencing the world through a diverse community of life. AbdelRahim engages these narratives in a dialogue with each other and traces their expression in the various disciplines and books written for both children and adults, analyzing the manifestation of fictional narratives in real life. This is both an inter- and multi-disciplinary endeavor that is reflected in the combination of research methods drawn from anthropology and literary studies as well as in the tracing of the narratives of order and chaos, or civilization and wilderness, in children’s literature and our world. Chapters compare and contrast fictional children’s books that offer different real-world socio-economic paradigms, such as A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh projecting a civilized monarcho-capitalist world, Nikolai Nosov’s trilogy on The Adventures of Dunno and Friends presenting the challenges and feats of an anarcho-socialist society in evolution from primitivism towards technology, and Tove Jansson’s Moominbooks depicting the harmony of anarchy, chaos, and wildness. AbdelRahim examines the construction, transmission, and acquisition of knowledge in children’s literature by visiting the very nature of literature, culture, and language and the civilized structures that domesticate the world. She brings radically new perspectives to the knowledge, culture, and construction of human beings, making an invaluable contribution to a wide range of disciplines and for those engaged in revolutionizing contemporary debates on the nature of knowledge, human identity, and the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Root of It All: Theory of Literature and Life
1. Epistemologies of Chaos and the Orderly Unknowledge of Literacy
2. Genealogical Narratives of Wilderness and Domestication: Identifying the Ontologies of Genesis and Genetics in Children’s Literature
3. In the End: Anthropological Narratives in Fiction and Life
Endorsements
- “Layla AbdelRahim demonstrates that children’s literature is a pivotal site where societies configure their relationship to the world’s anarchic, ever-diversifying web of life. Rigorously argued and beautifully written, her book is a call for renewal keyed to values such as mutual aid, freedom, love, and empathy for all living beings. If we are to halt our ecological slide into the abyss, we need to rethink what we teach our children: AbdelRahim points the way.”
– Allan Antliff, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Art History, University of Victoria, Canada and author of Anarchy and Art
- “It is hard to imagine a more thorough-going examination of the stories children are commonly introduced to. Ms. AbdelRahim has given us an exploration that is very multifaceted and truly eye-opening. A book to read and re-read!”
– John Zerzan, author of Elements of Refusal and Running on Emptiness
Reviews
- In International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development by Sarat K. Colling, (full review HERE)
“Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation is richly comparative, experientially compelling, informative, thought-provoking, and well-supported. Digging deep into our social foundations, it both critiques and celebrates science and folklore, while providing a new perspective that is both a treat and a challenge to those who love literature”.
- In Anarchist Studies by Petar Jandric, professor at Zagreb University of Applied Sciences (full review HERE)
“Using a powerful inter-disciplinary methodology, Layla AbdelRahim’s Children’s Literature, Domestication, and Social Foundation provides a nuanced and mature theory of wilderness and civilisation”.
- In Counterpunch by Martin Billheimer (full review HERE)
“Childhood, Ferocious Sleep”
“The argument of Children’s Literature is that most … childhood classics contain, consciously or unconsciously, a virulent antipathy toward the natural world, animals and animal nature, and the Commons. Fear of the wilderness is a preoccupation of this morose literature, represented in mythic or animal forms that both allure and terrify. The result is the inculcation of the arid outlines of commodity relations over the vigorously dialectical childhood mind. Even when children’s books offer a critique of that terrible project which begins at childhood’s end – Adulthood – the best it can muster is a kind of sentimental admission of defeat, exemplified by A. A. Milne’s final paragraph in Winnie the Pooh.
…AbdelRahim’s critiques of Lewis Carroll, Frank Baum, Milne, Lewis and Sendak are incisive and carefully thought through, stated clearly but with a true feel for poetics and ambiguity. As arguments, they are probably irrefutable”.
- In SWAA Newsletter, Southwestern Anthropology Association by Hilarie Kelly (full review HERE)
“The author, as anthropologist, was able to capture some of the important contrasts between oral traditions and literate traditions, majority and minority communities, and varied experiences with globalism. The book is both a meaty and a charming read, and suitable for advanced upper division and graduate students, as well as professionals”.
Interview reviews
- Interviewed by Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology for Animal Emotions blog on Psychology Today (full interview HERE)
“How Children’s Literature Links to Narcissism and Violence”
“If we are to halt the impending anthropogenic catastrophe, we need to identify the ways in which we have disrupted the system of life on this planet. To do that, we need to do three things: get outside our narcissistic narratives; cede our self-designated place as top predator; and re-integrate ourselves into wild economies, in which we cherish and respect the self-realisation and well being of each creature regardless of species or whether they hold any value for us. This is what I mean by rewilding”.
- Interviewed by Kathan Zerzan and John Zerzan on Anarchy Radio (full interview HERE)
Translations
On Colonization – Czech translation of an excerpt from the introduction chapter “The Root of It All“
Related Subjects
Anarchism; Anarchist Studies; Animal Studies; Anthropology; Civilization Studies; Children & Childhood; Children’s Literature; Cultural Theory; Domestication; Ecology and Environmental Studies; Education; Epistemology; Health & Illness; Interdisciplinary Studies; Literary/Critical Theory; Literature & Culture; Rewilding; Sociology; Wilderness Studies
