APPROACHES TO CHILDHOOD: ISSUES AND CONCERNS IN CREATIVE REPRESENTATIONS

Approaches to Childhood: Issues and Concerns in Creative Representations, an anthology of essays, is yet another contribution to the academic studies on heterogeneous aspects of childhood based on the recent developments in various disciplines like psychology, sociology and anthropology. Nibir K. Ghosh rightly comments in the foreword to the book that the narratives ‘emanating from the fertile soil of human compassion, sing profuse strains of deeply meditated creative renderings not only of distress but also of a child’s capacity to survive with courage and dignity in a hostile world’ (pp. 7–8). The anthology comprises five sections, five representations of childhood—Childhood From Within, Children’s Literature, Subjectivity, Childhood From Different Lands and Children’s Experiences. The book does not necessarily focus on the myriad critical perspectives on the fictional representations of childhood but rather adds to the existing discussions and explorations of childhood in various fictional and creative representations.