Open AccessPeter, Potter, Rabbits, Robbers
Author(s) -
Rose Lovell-Smith
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
papers (victoria park)/papers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1837-4530
pISSN - 1034-9243
DOI - 10.21153/pecl2009vol19no1art1154
Subject(s) - realism , situated , fantasy , aesthetics , harry potter , sociology , intersection (aeronautics) , power (physics) , literature , history , psychoanalysis , art , psychology , engineering , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , aerospace engineering
Critical discourses about realism and fantasy in children's literature have in the past included discussion of the merits, and demerits, of these conventions as they differently engage child readers. Beatrix Potter's works, situated at an intersection of the two literary conventions, seem to me rather to invite a useful complication of the distinction commonly made between them. Potter is clearly a fantasist. Yet aspects of her work support a scholarly tendency to claim her for realism, and this is often done by connecting Potter's life and works. In this essay I join those who have turned Potter studies towards investigating the cultural and literary contexts within which she worked.