The burden of consciousness : object animism in children's literature

Animals, plants and objects are often anthropomorphized to delightful effect in children’s literature while adult depictions of the inanimate coming alive almost always occur in the genres of science fiction and horror and have had a much less positive spin. This essay argues that these negative evo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Yam, Hui Qing
Other Authors: Walter Philip Wadiak
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10356/15220
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Animals, plants and objects are often anthropomorphized to delightful effect in children’s literature while adult depictions of the inanimate coming alive almost always occur in the genres of science fiction and horror and have had a much less positive spin. This essay argues that these negative evocations do indeed spill over into children’s texts, manifesting in the common motifs that appear in stories involving object animism, and that enlivened objects are furthermore, representations of Julia Kristeva’s concept of abjection.