SHCY Newsletter #7 (Winter 2006)

Histoires d'enfant, histories d'enfance, Tours, France. November 18-19, 2005

Helen Martin

On November the 18th and 19th this year I attended the GRAAT (Groupe de Recherches Anglo-Américaines de Tours) Conference held at the Université François-Rabelais, on the banks of the picturesque Loire River in Tours, France. The conference entitled Histoires d'enfant, histories d'enfance (Stories for children, histories of childhood) attracted over sixty delegates from around the world including participants from Europe, United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, South America, India, Australia, Kenya and Nigeria. For two days there was a feast of papers exploring the notions of children and childhood and some sessions I managed to attend within my group of presentations and at other times ranged from a look at decadent childhood in Oscar Wilde's tales; the notion of 'child' in children's books; censorship in children's books; the 'romantic' child in Maori literature; working class 'dime' novels; childhood in Shelley's poetry; training children to be children through a consideration of Louise May Alcott's novels and childhood and literature in colonial India, and in imperial Japan.

The opening address preceded talks by keynote speakers Lynne Vallone (Texas) considering the child ghost in 'Haunted' Children's Literature; Paula Fass (Berkeley) on viewing children from a mainly global, Western, perspective to Colin Heywood (Nottingham) rethinking the child in modern France; Peter Hunt (Cardiff) on the unreliability of fiction as a portrayer of childhood and Hugh Cunningham on childhood and happiness in Victorian Britain. Well organised by the indefatigable Rosie Findlay and Sébastien Salbayre from Tours and assisted by Bill Findlay, who always attended to any technical hitches with good humour, the conference ran smoothly with much lively interchanges and networking between members. This combined with exquisite French cuisine and an opportunity to visit the old part of town or imbibe the new Beaujolais, provided both an enriching and inspiring symposium for researchers and teachers working and studying in the field of children's literature, or grappling with concepts of childhood and what it means to be a child.

Ed.: Rosie Findley, one of the conference organizers, reports that a video of the keynote speakers is available at http://www.univ-tours.fr/graat