English professor Beverly Clark publishes work on children's literature and culture
February 4, 2000
Wheaton Professor of English Beverly Lyon Clark examines how the gender symbolism in children[base ']s books is constructed and resisted as the co-editor of ''Girls Boys Books Toys: Gender in Children[base ']s Literaure and Culture'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). University of Connecticut Professor of English and Comparative Literature Margaret R. Higonnet joined Professor Clark as co-editor.
Once considered a time of innocence and mirth, childhood now seems to be a battleground involving everything adults fight about: values and religion, types and stereotypes, family and society, work and play. In ''Girls Boys Books Toys: Gender in Children[base ']s Literaure and Culture,'' Profs. Clark and Higonnet bring together 22 scholars to look closely at the complexities of children[base ']s culture. Chapters focus on a variety of issues[~]many of which are hotly disputed[~]from what it means to be a child to the pace by which childhood is left behind.
Professor Clark holds a Ph.D from Brown University and has focused her research on American and children's literature and feminist criticism. She is the author of ''Reflections of Fantasy: The Mirror-Worlds of Carroll, Nabokov and Pynchon'' and editor of ''Critical Essays on Flannery O[base ']Connor.'' Her essays have appeared in numerous jounals, including ''New Literary History'' and ''Chronicle of Higher Education.''