TY - THES
AU - Anne Hutchison Lundin
AB - Kate Greenaway's critical reception in the late-nineteenth century was both constructed by and reflected in the Victorian press. The extensive reviews and commentary about children's books in general, and Kate Greenaway's books in general, were related to the horizons of expectations that existed in the 1880s-1890s in England and America. These attitudes and assumptions about children and their literature were common denominators by which books were read and recommended.

"Horizons of expectations" is the foundation of Reception Theory, a branch of reader-response criticism. The evaluation of literature is related to the historically-situated reception in which a work first appeared. The horizons of expectations toward children's literature in the 1880s and 1890s constituted the context in which children's books were received. The determination of these common denominators of criticism emerged from the exposition within contemporary periodicals and other related sources.

A spectrum of literary discourse included the following criteria: the treatment of children's books as a commodity; the elevation of children's books as works of art; an emphasis on illustration and pictorial effects in literature; a lack of rigid demarcation between adult and children's literature; a growing gender division; a diversification of the didactic tradition; the romantic idealization of childhood and its literature; attention to the historiography of children's literature; and anxiety about the changing character of children's reading. While these concerns informed the larger history of children's literature, they converged to create a unique climate for the reception of children's books in late-Victorian England and America.

This study of Kate Greenaway's critical reception investigated seventy-five literary periodicals for their coverage of children's books over a twenty-two year span, 1879-1901. The periodicals were selected largely from Poole's Index, Nineteenth-Century Readers' Guide, and Wellesley Index. The Greenaway titles selected were those engraved and published by Edmund Evans, which constitute the major canon of her work. One-third of the periodicals included either reviewing or commentary on Greenaway. Reviews, commentary, and obituaries of Greenaway are included as full-text in the bibliography. Charts indicate the prevalence of children's book reviewing among the seventy-five periodicals.
LA - English
M3 - Ph.D. Dissertation
N2 - Kate Greenaway's critical reception in the late-nineteenth century was both constructed by and reflected in the Victorian press. The extensive reviews and commentary about children's books in general, and Kate Greenaway's books in general, were related to the horizons of expectations that existed in the 1880s-1890s in England and America. These attitudes and assumptions about children and their literature were common denominators by which books were read and recommended.

"Horizons of expectations" is the foundation of Reception Theory, a branch of reader-response criticism. The evaluation of literature is related to the historically-situated reception in which a work first appeared. The horizons of expectations toward children's literature in the 1880s and 1890s constituted the context in which children's books were received. The determination of these common denominators of criticism emerged from the exposition within contemporary periodicals and other related sources.

A spectrum of literary discourse included the following criteria: the treatment of children's books as a commodity; the elevation of children's books as works of art; an emphasis on illustration and pictorial effects in literature; a lack of rigid demarcation between adult and children's literature; a growing gender division; a diversification of the didactic tradition; the romantic idealization of childhood and its literature; attention to the historiography of children's literature; and anxiety about the changing character of children's reading. While these concerns informed the larger history of children's literature, they converged to create a unique climate for the reception of children's books in late-Victorian England and America.

This study of Kate Greenaway's critical reception investigated seventy-five literary periodicals for their coverage of children's books over a twenty-two year span, 1879-1901. The periodicals were selected largely from Poole's Index, Nineteenth-Century Readers' Guide, and Wellesley Index. The Greenaway titles selected were those engraved and published by Edmund Evans, which constitute the major canon of her work. One-third of the periodicals included either reviewing or commentary on Greenaway. Reviews, commentary, and obituaries of Greenaway are included as full-text in the bibliography. Charts indicate the prevalence of children's book reviewing among the seventy-five periodicals.
PB - University of Alabama
PY - 1992
EP - 384 pp.
TI - The Critical Reception of Kate Greenaway in England and America, 1879-1901
ER -