The Letter-Box as intermediate space between child/adults/readers/writers
Phillips, Michelle H. "Along the 'Paragraphic Wires': Child-Adult Mediation in St. Nicholas Magazine" in Children's Literature vol. 37, p. 84-109.
Great article for thinking about how a magazine positions child readers, in a top-down way, as active participants. Phillips argues that St. Nicholas readers had much free play in their interactions with the magazine through a series of close readings of the Letter-Box section. Brilliantly conceived and well argued, this is a piece that can substantiate the claim that child readers were granted some specific kinds of agency.
Of special note:
-Phillps argues that children themselves write "with amusement about other children" engaginging in "a process of disidentification with childhood." (p. 105)
-about Dodge.. "...unlike so many of the editors of other children's periodicals, for Dodge the role of an editor is not coincident with that of an author, parent, or other adult authority figure." (p. 90) Instead, "the editor's role is to mediate" in this "space of hybridized adult-child interchange." (p. 87)
Great article for thinking about how a magazine positions child readers, in a top-down way, as active participants. Phillips argues that St. Nicholas readers had much free play in their interactions with the magazine through a series of close readings of the Letter-Box section. Brilliantly conceived and well argued, this is a piece that can substantiate the claim that child readers were granted some specific kinds of agency.
Of special note:
-Phillps argues that children themselves write "with amusement about other children" engaginging in "a process of disidentification with childhood." (p. 105)
-about Dodge.. "...unlike so many of the editors of other children's periodicals, for Dodge the role of an editor is not coincident with that of an author, parent, or other adult authority figure." (p. 90) Instead, "the editor's role is to mediate" in this "space of hybridized adult-child interchange." (p. 87)
