Curiouser: On the Queerness of Children
Our culture has a dominant narrative about children: they are (and should stay) innocent of sexual desires and intentions. At the same time, children are officially, tacitly, assumed to be heterosexual. Curiouser is a book about this narrative and what happens when it takes an unexpected, or queer, turn-when the stories of childhood must confront a child whose play does not conform to the ideal of child (a)sexuality.The contributors to Curiouser examine the ostensibly simple representations...
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US and Canadian scholars of literature examine the complex stories that arise from the field of child sexuality, and in particular their relation to the queer. They consider such aspects as the pedophilia of everyday life, desire and interpretation in The Exorcist, how to bring your kids up gay, Girl Scout camp and the limits of the counterpublic sphere, and memoirs of a Pentecostal boyhood. Ten of the 14 essays have been previously published. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Curiouser : on the queerness of childrenProducing Erotic children3The pedophilia of everyday life17"The gentle boy from the dangerous classes" : pederasty, domesticity, and capitalism in Horatio Alger31Live sex acts (Parental advisory : explicit material)57Narrating the child's queerness in what Maisie knew81Knowing children : desire and interpretation in The exorcist107How to bring your kids up gay : the war on effeminate boys139How to do things with perversion : Psychoanalysis and the "Child in Danger"151"No trespassing" : girl scout camp and the limits of the counterpublic sphere173Oh bondage up yours! female masculinity and the tomboy191Tongues untied : memoirs of a pentecostal boyhood215Guy Davenport's pastorals of childhood sexuality225Theory a tergo in The turn of the screw245Growing sideways, or versions of the queer child : the ghost, the homosexual, the freudian, the innocent, and the interval of animal277
