“Unpacking my Library”: Children's Literature in the Writings of Walter Benjamin

In recentyears as the works of Walter Benjamin, the German‐Jewish cultural critic and philosopher, have become more widely available in translation commentaries have emerged which focus on what his writings have to offer current practices of cultural history. Benjamin was an avid collector of children's books. He also wrote extensively on children's literature, forgotten children's stories, the compulsion and cultures of book collecting and about his own childhood experiences in Berlin. This essay concerns itself with Benjamin's relationship with children's literature, both a child and as a collector, and his insights into the process of engaging with the internal world of the child. In doing so consideration is given to his innovative approach to memory‐work and the relationship between “remembering”, memory, artefacts and history. In this sense, this essay is about the book and education and the writing of cultural history.

     

The Pedagogue of the Auratic Medium—Extending the Argument

Nick Peim has recently revisited the work of Walter Benjamin; specifically his famous essay on art and mechanical reproduction. In this reply, I too draw upon the inspiration of Benjamin to extend the argument to the question of experience and what might count as knowledge, both in a philosophical sense and also in terms of the curriculum. To exemplify my argument I draw upon the topics of prostitution, gambling and the urban. They were all central to Benjamin's unfinished work ‘The Arcades Project’.     

A ripple that ruffled feathers: an appreciation of 30 years of Michael Rosen's poetry for children

This article is a personal appreciation and analysis of the poetry of Michael Rosen. Drawing on his work over 30 years, the article argues that at the heart of Rosen's work is a passionate belief in aesthetic, political and personal emancipation. Included in the pleasure that his work evokes, is a challenge to a number of preconceived notions about childhood, literature, relationships and living. He questions how children see adults and how adults see children, and with a breathtaking honesty, the whole world of children's literature and its impact on conceptualisations of children is put in the foreground. The article examines Rosen's use of autobiography in his poems, his groundbreaking use of free verse in children's literature and his relation to modernity.     

Agency and Sovereignty: Georges Bataille's Anti-Humanist Conception of Child

Georges Bataille (1887–1962) is one of the most significant thinkers of the 20th century, whose anti-humanist anthropology influenced subsequent existentialist and post-structuralist philosophy. His wide-ranging writings (across philosophy, archaeology, economics, sociology, poetry, erotica and history of art) frequently mention children, childhood and childishness, and yet there has hitherto been little to no attention paid to this aspect of his work. This article opens up a neglected theme in Bataille studies, and also explores the consequences of Bataille's presentation of the human condition for our understanding of the pedagogical relationship. Of particular interest is the idea of the agentic child, which occupies such an important place in childhood studies, educational theory and public policy. In the light of Bataille's anthropology, I shall explore the idea that the pursuit of children's agency is the victim of its vaunting ambition.     

Ethical implications of assessment: Thoughts on pigs and process in an early childhood course

A graduate student in early childhood education discusses observations of his children during and after Hurricanes Rita and Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. He relates his use of responsive parenting and provides examples of his children's learning and play that emerged after the storms. He reflects upon how aspects of developmentally appropriate practice are applicable to parenting and how teachers may support reciprocal relationships with families.     

本雅明的日常生活诗学及其当代意义

本雅明抛开传统史学所关注的重大历史事件研究,从事微观的＂拱廊计划＂及日常生活研究,显示出本雅明研究视野的独特魅力。他运用＂超现实主义＂和＂蒙太奇＂等手法重现现代城市生活的本原,形成一种理解日常生活的诗学。本雅明在历史的＂废弃物＂和＂垃圾＂中表达一种日常生活理念及其现代性的批判,在传统历史经验贫困的现实生活中表达审美经验的现代性转变,凸显出其理论的诗学价值和意义。本雅明的日常生活诗学为当代研究日常生活理论及城市日常生活审美化提供了理论视野,并引发了人们对当代文艺审美空间的理论研究。     

GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN CHILD REARING: GOVERNING INFANCY

In this essay, Robert Davis argues that much of the moral anxiety currently surrounding children in Europe and North America emerges at ages and stages curiously familiar from traditional Western constructions of childhood. The symbolism of infancy has proven enduringly effective over the last two centuries in associating the earliest years of children's lives with a peculiar prestige and aura. Infancy is then vouchsafed within this symbolism as a state in which all of society's hopes and ideals for the young might somehow be enthusiastically invested, regardless of the complications that can be anticipated in the later, more ambivalent years of childhood and adolescence. According to Davis, the understanding of the concept of infancy associated with the rise of popular education can trace its pedigree to a genuine shift in sensibility that occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century. After exploring the essentially Romantic positions of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and Friedrich Fröbel and their relevance to the pattern of reform of early childhood education in the United Kingdom and the United States, Davis also assesses the influence of figures such as Stanley Hall and John Dewey in determining the rationale for modern early childhood education. A central contention of Davis's essay is that the assumptions evident in the theory and practice of Pestalozzi and his followers crystallize a series of tensions in the understanding of infancy and infant education that have haunted early childhood education from the origins of popular schooling in the late eighteenth century down to the policy dilemmas of the present day.     

Hermeneutic Haunting: E. D. Hirsch,Jr. and the Ghost of Interpretive Validity

This article applies criteria for validity in interpretation to Eric Donald Hirsch, Jr.'s interpretations of John Dewey. Specifically, three criteria that Hirsch, himself, established in his earlier work are used to evaluate Hirsch's interpretation of John Dewey as a member of a class (romantics) who embraced a naive naturalism (trait) more often than not (instances within a class) to the great detriment of other salient aspects of education. Hirsch calls his K–8 Core Knowledge sequence revolutionary. His revolution's justification rests, in part, on his rejection of an educational tradition that he attributes to John Dewey and his disciples. Hirsch uses his interpretation of Dewey to portray those who continue to take Dewey's ideas seriously as naive, dogmatic obstructionists who are blocking positive educational reform. Because Hirsch falls short of his own standards for validity in his interpretation of John Dewey, this article suggests that professors of education who continue to rework Dewey's ideas may be sources of potential insight in addressing educational challenges rather than intransigent obstructionists.     

Childhood and education in Jean-François Lyotard’s philosophy

The theme of childhood and education in Lyotard’s philosophy provides an interesting field of reflection combining education studies and continental philosophy. Childhood in Lyotard’s thought is mostly understood as infantia, a concept that appears towards the end of his work. The claim of this article is that childhood in Lyotard’s philosophy cannot be reduced to the late concept of infantia; looking at the recurring nature of this theme in his writings that is present from the beginning, as well as various figures under which it appears, pushes Lyotard’s readers to reconsider his work from a pluralist and interdisciplinary perspective.     

返老还童

影片简介：2005年的8月,卡特琳娜台风来袭,新奥尔良的一家医院里,81岁高龄的戴西（凯特·布兰切特饰）生命垂危,此时只有37岁的女儿卡洛琳（朱莉娅·奥蒙德饰）陪伴着她。戴西为卡洛琳讲了一个故事：盲人钟表匠盖特被指派造一只悬挂在新奥尔良火车站的大钟。得知儿子在一战中阵亡的消息后,他继续着造钟的工作,     

‘It's The Catcher in the Rye… He said it was the kind of book you made your own': Finding Holden in Contemporary YA Literature

Published in 1951,The Catcher in the Rye encapsulated teenage angst. Some time ago David Belbin mused about the influence of Catcher on the proliferation and popularity of YA literature. Salinger's recent death has sparked a renewed interest in his work and more attention on Holden and his inheritors. This article discusses how five recent adolescent novels, with male protagonists, mirror Holden's adolescent paralysis. They exist in a liminal state between childhood and adulthood, attempting to understand the phonies around them. These protagonists help define the nature of the ‘lost’ adolescent in the current golden age of YA literature.     

Standing by … standing off – troublesome compassion in the relationships of school boys

This paper draws on the story of ‘Mikael’, a schoolboy from northern Finland, to examine how his affective ties of compassion and his pursuit of dominant forms of masculinity evolve in his journey from middle childhood to young adulthood. In his earlier years, Mikael's speech regarding his relationships with peers and family members indicates a non-hierarchical sympathetic orientation, enabling sensitivity to diverse vulnerabilities. Over time, his speech reflects more and more the ideals of dominating masculinity and hierarchical relationality, and it is marked by ‘inner-circle’ compassion that excludes people considered vulnerable and/or ‘Other’. The authors argue that the challenge of balancing compassionate concern, masculinity and social position generates heavy costs, imposing on young men not only the heavy burden of fulfilling the requirements of culturally esteemed masculinity, but also a partial loss of being in touch with one's inner faculties of emotions and imagination.     

论余华小说文革记忆的言说

余华的童年和少年时期都是在文革中度过的,文革的潜在记忆对其小说创作产生了很大影响。通过对余华小说文本的解读可以看出,余华是以自己独特的方式在作品中言说有关文革记忆的,其言说的方式是记忆与想象,言说的口吻是冷静与狂欢,言说的主题是暴力与温情。     

Pity and Justice in Rousseau's Emile: Developing a Concern for the Common Good

Scholarly accounts of the training of pity in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile focus on how Emile's tutor activates the psychological mechanisms necessary for the feeling of pity in book 4 of the text. This account is inadequate, for it fails to show how Emile acquires the evaluative ability to make the judgment about who deserves pity as well as the willingness to adjudicate his own and others' interests. In this article, Wing Sze Leung argues that books 1 through 3 lay the foundation by developing in Emile the attitudes and dispositions that guide him in his judgment-making about which kind of life he should pursue. Books 4 and 5 then develop Emile's ability to make interpersonal judgments of pity through habituated practice. By gradually cultivating Emile's sensitivity to the potential conflict between his self-interests and others' well-being, as well as the resolution to refrain from infringing on others' interests and to pursue the common good, Rousseau's long-term educational project molds Emile's disposition to act as justice demands. The article concludes with a brief response to some criticisms about Rousseau's educational project.     

A Mysterious Success: Doctor Spock and the Netherlands in the 1950s

This article examines the success of Doctor Benjamin Spock's best selling “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” (1946). It focuses on the case of the Netherlands during the 1950s. As in the United States, the book immediately became extremely popular after the first Dutch edition was published in 1950. In this case, however, the doctor's success was not at all likely, as conditions that are commonly held responsible were absent. First, the authors discuss the explanations of Spock's popularity in the United States. His book is generally considered an expression of the developing consumerism of the booming American post‐war economy. Secondly, an outline of economic, demographic, social and cultural developments in the Netherlands during the 1950 s shows that arguments relating to economic prosperity do not hold true for the Dutch case. The post‐war years were an era of poverty, scarcity, frugality, order, strictly hierarchical relationships, and a strong influence of religious doctrines on family life. Thirdly, as these conditions did not match with the doctor's secular, fun‐oriented, and allegedly permissive child‐rearing ideal, his advice is compared with Dutch family manuals of the post‐war years. The main difference appears to be Spock's much more positive and optimistic approach to parenting. For Dutch experts parenthood was loaded with difficulties, risks and responsibilities, whereas Spock presented it first of all as a source of pleasure. Therefore, the authors draw the conclusion that young Dutch parents must have felt attracted to an approach to child rearing they could associate with prosperity and success.     

Learning from MacIntyre about Learning: Finding Room for a Second-Person Perspective?

In this article I try to bring into relief the background significance of learning in Alasdair MacIntyre's writings. After briefly adverting to his own manner of learning from other thinkers, I begin by outlining what he sees as essential to learning in early childhood (§I). Next, I spell out what I take to be important implications for learning, mainly in the context of schooling, of his conception of ‘practice’ (§II). Turning then to the ‘revolutionary Aristotelianism’ of his later work, I elucidate the kind of transformative learning that he deems necessary because of dominant tendencies in late modern societies (§III) and because of key features of human lives—including fallibility, narrativity and ‘final end’—that he analyses in his most recent book, Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity (§IV). I then consider his conception of how one person's learning can be aided by another, suggesting that this conception would be strengthened by the incorporation of a second-person perspective (§V). I link the absence of such a perspective to what I see as his underestimation of the salience of the teacher–student relationship and his consequently diminished account of teaching—a largely Aristotelian-Thomist account whose strengths in other respects I acknowledge (§VI). I conclude by asking whether this line of criticism, if valid, might not indicate a lack in MacIntyre's conception of personal relationships more generally—despite the great import that he grants to them, for weal or woe, in all human lives (§VII). [The present article is included in wider discussion of issues bearing on learning and teaching in my Persons in Practice: Essays between Education and Philosophy (Wiley, forthcoming)].     

PAINTING WITH IMPASTO: METAPHORS,MIRRORS, AND REFLECTIVE REGRESSION IN MONTAIGNE'S “OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN”

Analyzing Montaigne's triptych painting, “Of the Education of Children,” reveals a series of ever‐morphing, Dorian Gray–like canvases that depict metaphor mutations through which Montaigne defined education by distinguishing between schooling a child into a learned man and educating him into an able, active, and gentle person. Montaigne used metaphor and metaphor clusters to image key points in his educational philosophy, advanced his argument by intertwining, transmuting, and inverting metaphors, and thereby drew and vividly painted his philosophy of how to educate a person from cradle to coffin. Because the etymology and pronunciation of “essay” (from the French essai) support Montaigne's imaging and exploiting of this genre's creative potential, Virginia Worley begins by considering the term's etymology before positioning her analysis of Montaigne's work within metaphor research. She then examines the metaphors Montaigne used to paint the triptych word painting that embodies his philosophy of education: the meaning and value of educating in and for the art of living well.     

Fostering creativity in the early childhood classroom

Most early childhood teachers would tell you that creativity is important; and that creativity should be considered an integral part of every early childhood classroom. Yet, too often, it is slighted in some areas or limited to being a part of art education. How can creativity can be nurtured and developed in all cognitive and social aspects of an early childhood classroom? The key to this fostering of creativity is for each teacher to examine his or her own filters that can help to foster, or hinder, as the case may be, creativity in that classroom setting. By examining adult attitudes, classroom atmosphere, and children's activities and materials, and adjusting, where necessary, to incorporate certain positive elements for creativity, early childhood educators are more likely to establish a trusting, flexible, and safe environment that allows and stimulates the creative process in an atmosphere of respect.     

透明的翻译：翻译的文化思考

西方翻译理论家本杰明和韦努狄都对透明的翻译这一概念有过看似令人费解的论述。本杰明所提倡的透明的翻译实质是异化的翻译,韦努狄所抨击的透明的翻译实质是归化的翻译。两种提法是殊途同归、即都主张异化的翻译。其理论渊源可追溯到更早期的翻译理论家施莱尔马赫。