Boys in Children’s Literature and Popular Culture: Masculinity, Abjection, and the Fictional Child

Boys in Children's Literature and Popular Culture: Masculinity, Abjection, and the Fictional Child proposes new theoretical frameworks for understanding the contradictory ways masculinity is represented in popular texts consumed by boys in the United States. The popular texts boys like are often ignored by educators and scholars, or are simply dismissed as garbage boys should be discouraged from enjoying. However, examining and making visible the ways masculinity functions in these texts is vital to understanding the broad array of works that make up children's culture and form dominant versions of masculinity.