Advertisement

Children's Literature in Education

, Volume 44, Issue 4, pp 311–325 | Cite as

Progressive Presentations of Place-Based Identities in Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now

  • Karen Lockney
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

This article provides a close reading of Meg Rosoff’s award-winning novel How I Live Now. It argues that an understanding of the text can be extended through an application of ideas found in contemporary spatial discourse concerning place. Reading the novel within this context allows a discussion of ways in which it draws on established traditions within children’s literature, but also of ways in which it challenges a view of place-based identities, and the social relations inherent within those, as being nostalgic and fixed. Whilst not unique in this respect, How I Live Now offers a particularly strong challenge to conceptions of place as being rooted in stability, a challenge which is pertinent to young readers negotiating postmodern contexts, and which offers them an optimistic and progressive consideration of place. The novel draws on some literary traditions which could be viewed as nostalgic—the imagined rural idyll, the country house and garden, the escape from the city—but Rosoff offers a subtle subversion of these traditions through her progressive consideration of place-based identities.

Keywords

Place Place-based identities Spatial discourse Rural Meg Rosoff How I Live Now 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Bachelard, Gaston. (1958/1994). The Poetics of Space. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
  2. Bavidge, Jenny. (2006). Stories in Space: The Geographies of Children’s Literature. Children’s Geographies., 4(3), 319–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Bawden, Nina. (1974). Carrie’s War. London: Puffin.Google Scholar
  4. Burnett, Frances. (1910/2003). The Secret Garden. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
  5. Charlton, Emma, Cliff Hodges, Gabrielle, Pointon, Pam, Nikolajeva, Maria, Spring, Erin, Taylor, Liz, and Wyse, Dominic. (2012). My Place: Exploring Children’s Place-Related Identities Through Reading and Writing. Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 1–17. Accessed October 10, 2012, from http://www.tandfonline.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/03004279.2012.662521.
  6. Charlton, Emma, Wyse, Dominic, Cliff Hodges, Gabrielle, Maria, Nikolajeva, Pointon, Pam, and Taylor, Liz. (2011). Place-Related Identities Through Texts: From Interdisciplinary Theory to Research Agenda. British Journal of Educational Studies, 59(1), 63–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Cresswell, Tim. (2003). Introduction, Theorising Place. In G. Verstraete and Tim Cresswell (Eds.), Mobilising Place, Placing Mobility: The Politics of Representation in a Globalised World. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
  8. Cresswell, Tim. (2004). Place: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.Google Scholar
  9. Garnett, Eve. (1937/1976). The Family from One End Street. London: Puffin.Google Scholar
  10. Gibbons, Stella. (1932/1994). Cold Comfort Farm. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
  11. Kingsley, Charles. (1863/1994). The Water Babies. London: Wordsworth.Google Scholar
  12. Lewis, C. S. (1950/2002). The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. London: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
  13. Lurie, Alison. (2004). Boys and Girls Forever: Children’s Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter. London: Vintage.Google Scholar
  14. Magorian, Marjorie. (1981/2003). Goodnight Mr. Tom. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
  15. Massey, Doreen. (1994). Space, Place and Gender. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
  16. Matless, Doreen. (1998). Landscape and Englishness. London: Reaktion Books.Google Scholar
  17. Montgomery, L. (1908/1998). Anne of Green Gables. London: Puffin.Google Scholar
  18. Morrison, B. (2011). The Country House and the English Novel. The Guardian. Accessed September 1, 2012, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/11/country-house-novels-blake-morrison.
  19. Ping Chang, Li. (2011). (Re)location of Home in Louise Erdrich’s The Game of Silence. Children’s Literature in Education., 42(2), 132–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Ransome, Arthur. (1930/2001). Swallows and Amazons. London: Puffin.Google Scholar
  21. Rosoff, Meg. (2004/2005). How I Live Now. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
  22. Rosoff, Meg. (2012). Interview with the author. Accessed March 12, 2012, from http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm/author_number/1059/meg-rosoff.
  23. Smith, Dodie. (1996/1949). I Capture the Castle. London: Virago.Google Scholar
  24. Tuan, Yu Fan. (1977/2007). Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
  25. White, E. B. (1952/2003). Charlotte’s Web. London: Puffin.Google Scholar
  26. Wilkie Stibbs, Christine. (2006). The “Other” Country: Memory, Voices, and Experiences of Colonized Childhoods. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 31(3), 237–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Williams, Raymond. (1985). The Country and the City. London: Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
  28. Wilson, Melissa, and Short, Kathy. (2012). Goodbye Yellow Brick Road: Challenging the Mythology of Home in Children’s Literature. Children’s Literature in Education, 43(2), 129–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Wyse, Dominic, Nikolajeva, Maria, Charlton, Emma, Cliff Hodges, Gabrielle, Pointon, Pam, and Taylor, Liz. (2011). Place-Related Identity, Texts, and Transcultural Meanings. British Educational Research Journal, 38(6), 1019–1039.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of CumbriaCarlisle, CumbriaUK

Personalised recommendations

Cite article

Buy options