Research 2009 - 2011
In the Words of Children's Literature
Mavis Reimer, Ph.D.
Canadian Research Chair in the Culture of Childhood
Associate Professor, English
Through a series of collaborative projects, Dr. Mavis Reimer is exploring the historical
and contemporary cultures of childhood. Enquiry into the genre of children’s texts is
central to her work. The University of Winnipeg has a history of studying children’s
literature within the Department of English, which allows theoretical questions around
textual form, and social and political contexts, to be explored.
Recently Dr. Reimer worked with a group of researchers to look at the concept of home in Canadian children’s literature. This collection of essays explores home as nation and domicile, home in opposition to homelessness, and the manner in which street kids are portrayed. It also addresses how representations of homeless young people are related to ideas of globalization and the need to be mobile. “Canadian literature is influenced by our country’s history as a former colony, our population of immigrants, refugees, and Aboriginals, and by our proximity to the United States,” says Reimer. The study of home in Canadian children’s literature reveals all of these tensions.
Another research team organized by Dr. Reimer is producing a picture book for young readers. The story follows the journeys of a young 17th-century Cree woman, whose burial site was discovered at Nagami Bay in Manitoba in 1993. The narrative will be just one thread through the text: the margins will include maps and photographs, explanations of Cree words and diary entries from European explorers. The objective of the multi-modal book is to allow young readers to become co-producers of the text.
Children’s books of the “Golden Age” of the latter half of the 19th century in England persist as reference points for studies, as well-known texts of that time continue to be reproduced. It was an era when the concept of the child shifted from that of an economic resource to a “priceless” figure of emotional value, a dramatic transformation that was captured in children’s literature of the day.
Dr. Reimer speculates that a similarly dramatic change may be occurring today through the digital revolution, in ways that scholars are beginning to map. “In the global world of the 21st century, texts for young people are increasingly traveling across national borders, and must be understood within larger systems of cultural politics.”