Daisy May Johnson

A Space To Be Herself : Locating Girlhood In Children’s Literature

Forgive the dual posting, particularly if you subscribe to both these blogs, but I wanted to draw this to as wide an audience as possible. I promise this sort of reblog shall be a rare and intermittent thing x

Daisy May Johnson's avatarBig boots & adventures

If I believe in anything, I believe in making my research publicly accessible when and where I can. Obviously I believe in a lot of things, but I think that’s the one that underpins everything. Share your work. It’s terrifying, but I think, vital.

So, on that note, here’s a brief note to say that my MPhil thesis is officially on public view from today. It’s called A Space To Be Herself : Locating Girlhood In Children’s Literature and is available to download here. In it, I write about Angela Brazil, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Michelle Magorian, Enid Blyton, Robin Stevens, and David Almond. Here’s the abstract.

This thesis argues that the representation of both the ‘girl’ and ‘girlhood’ within children’s literature can be best understood through a reading of space and place. The opening chapter considers the Golden Age of children’s literature, and investigates The Secret Garden by Frances…

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Responses

  1. setinthepast Avatar
    setinthepast

    Brilliant subject for a thesis. It’s nice to see someone including Enid Blyton – ask someone who’s not particularly into girls’ own books to name a fictional boarding school, and most of them will say Malory Towers or St Clare’s, and yet she always seems to be overlooked in academic works. OK, her books aren’t in the same league as the Chalet School etc, but they’re the ones everyone knows!

    Reply
    1. LH Johnson Avatar
      LH Johnson

      I am SO pro putting Enid Blyton into the conversation!! And thank you! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Katy K. Avatar
    Katy K.

    Congratulations on finishing and publishing your thesis!! It looks really interesting!

    Reply
    1. LH Johnson Avatar
      LH Johnson

      Thank you so much 🙂

      Reply
  3. Calmgrove Avatar
    Calmgrove

    Very much looking forward to reading your thesis too when I have a spare moment — oh, and congratulations for making it freely and publicly available. 😊 You’re not tempted to repackage it for publication in hard copy?

    Reply
    1. LH Johnson Avatar
      LH Johnson

      Thank you! I am rewriting elements of it and reworking it for Various Secret Things, but I think that making this version public is the right step for me at this point 🙂

      Reply

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