Karen J. Renner
Evil Children in the Popular Imagination
Karen J. Renner
Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA
ISBN 978-1-137-60321-0
e-ISBN 978-1-137-59963-6
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59963-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955705
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.
Cover illustration: Day of the Dead girl over toys, July 2011 © Brit Bentine, Locked Illusions Photography
Printed on acid-free paper
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc.The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
Acknowledgments
A big, huge thank you goes out to the following:
-
Gina Barreca and Margaret Mitchell, for giving me the opportunity to guest-edit a special issue on this topic for Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory , and Tara Harney-Mahajan, who oversaw the whole process from start to finish. Gina, I know the topic of evil children came out of a conversation that we had in your office; for the life of me, I can’t remember a word of it, but it must have been a good one—as our conversations always are. This book wouldn’t exist without you;
-
Bob Baronas, who has patiently sat by my side and watched enough bad horror movies in the past five years to last a lifetime;
-
my brother, Michael Renner, who got me into horror in the first place, and my Mom and Dad, who always support my weirdness;
-
Kristen Gregory, who enrolled in the first evil children class I ever taught and then taught me endlessly about the subject and read over the manuscript;
-
Scot Carpenter, who also read the whole damn thing, and Jan Carpenter, who never hesitated to talk about the subject;
-
all of the amazing students at NAU who enrolled in “Evil” Children in Literature and Film or sent me references, especially Stormi De Silva, Lenore Hipsher, Jack McKever, Jessie Gardner, and Ben Wake;
-
colleagues and friends who have been especially generous with their support over the years: Peter Baldwin, Jeff Berglund, Richard Bleiler, Monica Brown, Anna Mae Duane, Angela Hansen, Steffen Hantke, Susanne Kord, Mara Reisman, Cathy Schlund-Vials, Greg Semenza, Kate Capshaw Smith, Hans Staats, Erin Stalcup, Chris Vials, and Nicole Walker;
-
Brit Bentine, the genius behind Locked Illusions Photography, who was kind enough to donate the coolest photograph EVER for the cover, Kairi, the model in that cool photograph, and Kairi’s cool mom, Jennifer;
-
so many supportive folk in the English department and the College of Arts and Letters at NAU;
-
and the staff in Document Delivery Services at NAU, who must surely think I’m certifiable by now but haven’t (yet) alerted the authorities.
Contents