Amanda M. Greenwell (Central Connecticut State University)

The child occupies a fraught space in American culture, as notions of the “rebellious adolescent” and the “infant nation” have long tethered political upheaval to the figure of the child. This panel seeks to examine child figures who have performed disruption in the literature of America with particular interest in disruption that confronts notions of authority, ownership, and belonging.

This panel defines “child” loosely, welcoming, for instance, considerations of figures not necessarily children in the sense of age, but nevertheless infantilized in literary or cultural terms; likewise, it welcomes papers focused on literature written from and about “America” understood as a name for a land, nation, people, or concept. Rather than focus on a particular range of texts, it seeks a diverse representation of authors, texts, and time periods in order to isolate the figure of the child as the unifying thread and focal point of discussion.

The child occupies a fraught space in American culture; notions of the “rebellious adolescent” and the “infant nation” have long tethered political upheaval to the figure of the child. This panel examines child figures who perform disruption in the literature of America, with particular interest in disruption that confronts hegemonic notions of authority, ownership, and belonging. “Child” is defined loosely; considerations of figures not necessarily children in the sense of age but nevertheless infantilized are welcome; also welcome are papers focused on literature written from and about “America” as a name for a land, nation, people, or concept.