Whether it's real or imaginary, every child has a secret space, and this remarkable book explores them all. For some it's a treehouse or a hidden spot beneath a bush; for others it's a private psychic refuge--a favorite book, or a dollhouse that becomes a stage for a young imagination. As the more than four dozen pieces collected here reveal, such spaces play a key role in a child's development and retain a symbolic power that resonates throughout our adult lives. No reader will put this book down without experiencing a rush of familiar memories and new insights into that bygone world. Poet Diane Ackerman evokes that "parallel universe behind the eyes / which no one shared, or dare discover"; Paul Brodeur recalls the "fort" where he and his brother defended Cape Cod against invaders in World War II; Nobelist Wole Soyinka offers a poignant verse portrait of Africa's lost children; and Paul West remembers youthful encounters with his eccentric neighbors Edith and Osbert Sitwell. Elsewhere, Robert Coles summons up memories of his first years as a doctor and a wise young patient who taught him a lesson he has never forgotten, and Mary Galbraith shows how childhood loss is transformed into art in Ludwig Bemelmans's classic Madeline. And these are just a few of the gems in a treasury that includes Anne Frank, the controversial photographs of Sally Mann and the crudely eloquent drawings of young South African refugees, clinical case studies and profoundly personal imagery. A perceptive, thought-provoking work for general readers, Secret Spaces of Childhood opens a wonderful window on the world of the young. Elizabeth Goodenough is Lecturer in Comparative Literature, the Residential College, University of Michigan.
Author(s): Elizabeth N. Goodenough
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 354
Contents......Page 8
Introduction / Elizabeth Goodenough......Page 12
A Symposium on Secret Spaces / Wayne Booth, Paul Brodeur, Frederick Buechner, et al.......Page 30
Poetry......Page 122
The Secret Speaks / Nancy Willard......Page 124
Door / Julie Jordan Hanson......Page 125
Fields of Vision / Roald Hoffmann......Page 127
Mouse History / Molly McQuade......Page 129
On Little Boys and Their Guns / Brad Davis......Page 131
A Room in California, 1954 / Laurence Goldstein......Page 132
The Children of This Land / Wole Soyinka......Page 135
Book of Hours / Cathy Song......Page 137
Boy of Sea / Allison Eir Jenks......Page 138
Japanese Plums / James Nolan......Page 139
La Isla de los Monstros / Virgil Suarez......Page 141
Portfolio......Page 144
Negotiating Boundaries, Regenerating Ruins: The "Secret Spaces of Childhood" Exhibition / Margaret Price......Page 146
An Exhibition of Remembered Hide-Outs: Graphics Portfolio......Page 162
Essays......Page 178
Peeking through the Curtain: Narratives as the Boundary between Secret and Known / Susan Engel......Page 180
Like a Fable, Not a Pretty Picture: Holocaust Representation in Roberto Benigni and Anita Lobel / Adrienne Kertzer......Page 194
Children with a Secret / Kathleen Coulborn Faller......Page 216
The Camera of Sally Mann and the Spaces of Childhood / James Christen Steward......Page 231
Special Place—What Is That? Significant and Secret Spaces in the Lives of Children in a Johannesburg Squatter Camp / Louise Chawla......Page 242
PRIVAT (sic) KEEP OUT: The Diary as Secret Space / Joan W. Blos......Page 263
Primal Postcards: Madeline as a Secret Space of Ludwig Bemelman's Childhood / Mary Galbraith......Page 272
Writing from the Secret Annex: The Case of Anne Frank / Karein K. Goertz......Page 281
Memoir......Page 296
In the Memory Mines / Diane Ackerman......Page 298
The Generosity of Arpeggios and Ravens / Thylias Moss......Page 311
My Life among the Dolls; or How I Became a Radical Feminist Playwright / Carolyn Gage......Page 317
Spaces Within: The Portable Interiors of Childhood / U. C. Knoepflmacher......Page 324
Children as Observing Critics and Skeptics / Robert Coles......Page 336
Fiction......Page 344
Telepathy and Other Imitations / Abdon Ubidia......Page 346
Satan in All His Glory / Karen Heuler......Page 353
Blue Dog in the Crazy Truck / Catherine Ryan Hyde......Page 365
Butterfly Meat / Wanda Coleman......Page 379
