Rereading the Self

Alison Waller

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

This chapter puts forward a model of rereading childhood fiction in which multiple selfhoods are implicated: the adult who remembers, the adult who rereads, and the image of the child reader. This process can be understood as an active process of engaging with intriguing fragments from the past, a practice that is like digging up a time-capsule. Waller provides an account of her research with a group of adult readers who were asked to identify, recall, and reread a significant book from their youth, and builds her model through discussion of Clive (78) and his reading memories. Through analysis of this participant’s recollected responses and experience of rereading children’s literature classics, Waller demonstrates that a readerly identity can exist over time and across the boundaries of childhood and adulthood.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMemory in the Twenty-first Century
Subtitle of host publicationNew Critical Perspectives from the Sciences and Arts and Humanities.
EditorsSebastian Groes
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages325-329
ISBN (Print)978-1-137-52058-6
Publication statusPublished - 2016

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