Looking Forward, Looking Back : Images of Eastern European Jewish Migration to America in Contemporary American Children's Literature.

Intro -- Looking Forward, Looking Back: Images of Eastern European Jewish Migration to America in Contemporary American Children's Literature -- Contents -- List of Figures and Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I: The Corpus -- The Historical and Personal Dimension of the Narratives -- Part II: Theory: Image Studies -- Functions -- Aspects of Image Studies in Children's Literature Research -- Images in Picture Books -- Images in Adaptation Processes -- Migration Narratives -- Part III: The Country of Origin: Russia -- Push-factor Anti-Semitism -- Push-factor Poverty -- Books without Push-factors -- History and Historiography as a Frame of Reference -- Cold War Ideology and Paratextual Clues -- Disappearance of the Shtetl -- Visual Russia: Samovars, Soldiers and the Absence of Poverty -- Two Examples: Russia as the Contrapuntal Image -- Conclusion -- Part IV: The Target Country: America -- Dreaming about America: the Image, its Origin and Variations in an Eastern European Jewish Context -- The American Dream in Children's Literature: Narrative Patterns and Traditions -- The American Dream in the Corpus -- The Dream of Freedom: America as the Promised Land -- The Dream of Success: America as the Land of Personal Fulfilment -- The Dream of Gold: America as the Land of Riches -- The Golden Land and the Promised Land as Phrases -- Combined Variations of the American Dream -- All Three Variations: Freedom, Personal Fulfilment and Gold -- Two Variations: Gold and Personal Fulfilment -- America - the Heathen Country -- Narratives without the American Dream -- Visual America: the Statue of Liberty -- Part V: The American Dream and Its Poetic Functions in Migration Narratives for Children -- New York's Lower East Side and the Exposure of the American Dream -- Literature -- The Visual Lower East Side: Photography and Illustrations.

The Lower East Side in Migration Narratives for Children: Four Contemporary Examples -- Amy Hest: When Jessie Came across the Sea (1997), Illustrated by P.J. Lynch -- Ben Sonder: The Tenement Writer. An Immigrant's Story (1993), Illustrated by Meryl Rosner -- Richard Michelson: Grandpa's Gamble (1999), Illustrated by Barry Moser -- Kathryn Lasky: Dreams in the Golden Country (1998) -- Conclusion -- Innocent Children and Sceptical Adults: the Image of America as a Device of Characterization -- Chaya M. Burstein: Rifka Bangs the Teakettle (1970), Illustrated by the Author -- Leonard Everett Fisher: A Russian Farewell (1980), Illustrated by the Author -- Conclusion -- Laughing at America's Gold: the Image as a Humorous Device -- Mikki Machlin: My Name Is Not Gussie (1999), Illustrated by the Author -- Marge Blaine: Dvora's Journey (1979), Illustrated by Gabriel Lisowski -- Anita Heyman: Exit from Home (1977) -- Conclusion -- Part VI: Adapting an Immigrant Autobiography. Mary Antin's The Promised Land (1912) and Rosemary Wells's Streets of Gold (1999), Illustrated by Dan Andreasen -- Mary Antin: The Promised Land -- Russia - the Country of Origin -- America - the Target Country -- Rosemary Wells: Streets of Gold -- Selection of The Promised Land -- Mode of Adaptation -- From Autobiography for Adults to Picture Book Biography for Children -- Selection from The Promised Land -- Modification of Selected Material -- Russia - the Country of Origin -- America - the Target Country -- Conclusion -- Part VII: Conclusion -- Part VIII: References -- a) The Corpus of Texts on the Immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe to America (1881-1924) in Children's Literature Published in the USA between 1970-2005 -- b) Other Primary Sources -- c) Secondary Literature -- d) Russian Sources -- e) Webliography -- Index.

How is the life-altering event of migration narrated for children, especially if it was caused by Anti-Semitism and poverty? What of the country of origin is remembered and what is forgotten, and what of the target country when the migration is imagined there a century later? Looking Forward, Looking Back examines today's representation of Jewish mass migration from Eastern Europe to America around the turn of the last century. It explores the collective story that emerges when American authors look back at this exodus from an Eastern European home to a new one to be established in America. Focusing on children's literature, it investigates a wide range of texts including young adult literature as well as picture books and hence sheds light on the dynamics of the verbal and the visual in generating images of the self and other, the familiar and the strange. This book is of interest to scholars in the field of imagology, children's literature, cultural studies, American studies, Slavic studies, and Jewish studies.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.