Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures

I just received an email about this new journal and definitely want to share. (I edited the email a little to generalize it for public consumption.)

Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures, is an interdisciplinary, refereed academic journal whose mandate is to publish research on, and to provide a forum for discussion about, cultural productions for, by, and about young people. Jeunesse often publishes academic work on fairy tales, which may be of interest to SurLaLune's visitors.

In our Summer Issue 1.1, we included an article by Lisa Orr entitled "Difference That Is Actually Sameness Mass-Reproduced": Barbie Joins the Princess Convergence," which discusses Disney princess culture.

In our upcoming Winter Issue 1.2, we will be including an article by Pauline Greenhill and Steven Kohm, entitled "Little Red Riding Hood and the Pedophile in Film: Freeway, Hard Candy and The Woodsman."

We would love to be a resource for those interested in fairy tales and a venue for those who would like to consider publishing an academic article on fairy tales.

So here's another resource for those studying children's literature and issues as well as fairy tales at times. That's always good news!

I'm interested in the Barbie article since I haven't read much about this obviously lucrative line for the Barbie franchise. Not that there are always fairy tales used--the latest is Barbie and the Three Musketeers--but I've been amused by them all. I never associated Barbie with classical literature or folklore before these lines began. I'm not exactly comfortable doing it now, but I prefer Barbie this way than the traditional way if I must have her jumping out at me every time I shop for toys or DVDs. (And don't get me started on Bratz...)

And I admit to being impressed that at least Mattel chooses less popular or less used fairy tales when they use fairy tales--Rapunzel and Twelve Dancing Princesses have definitely received a boost of recognition thanks to Barbie as Rapunzel and Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses. How about Barbie in the Wild Swans next?