Talking to the Holy Spirit and Growling with the Bears: Singing Child Characters in Eighteenth-Century Hymn Books for Children
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In: Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung , Vol. 2021, 01.12.2021, p. 36-50.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Talking to the Holy Spirit and Growling with the Bears
T2 - Singing Child Characters in Eighteenth-Century Hymn Books for Children
AU - Köhler, Ulrike Kristina
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - In this article I explore the construction of singing child characters in Isaac Watts’ Divine and Moral Songs for Children (1715 and Christopher Smart’s Hymns for the Amusement of Children (1771). The first part focusses on the nature of the lyrical persona within the lexical fields »voice and vocal sound« and »religion« and also looks at the possible addressees. The second part examines stylistic, phonetic, and formal elements, and explores their role in constructing the ›singing I.‹ To show the potential of Watts’ »Against Quarrelling and Fighting« to function as an invitation to playfully adopt behaviour opposed to Christian norms, the article examines a performance of Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite, a chorale by Matthew J. Zimnoch, whose text is taken from Watts’ hymn. Combining approaches from research on children’s poetry with ones from the interface of children’s literature and hymnody, the article also integrates a digitally supported close reading. The hymn texts were inputted into f4analyse, a software used in text linguistics and the social sciences, which allows for the assignment of categories, such as positive self-connotation of the ›singing I‹ or rhyme patterns. In conclusion, the article evaluates the potential of such a digitally supported research methodology for future research at the intersection of children’s literature and digital humanities.
AB - In this article I explore the construction of singing child characters in Isaac Watts’ Divine and Moral Songs for Children (1715 and Christopher Smart’s Hymns for the Amusement of Children (1771). The first part focusses on the nature of the lyrical persona within the lexical fields »voice and vocal sound« and »religion« and also looks at the possible addressees. The second part examines stylistic, phonetic, and formal elements, and explores their role in constructing the ›singing I.‹ To show the potential of Watts’ »Against Quarrelling and Fighting« to function as an invitation to playfully adopt behaviour opposed to Christian norms, the article examines a performance of Let Dogs Delight to Bark and Bite, a chorale by Matthew J. Zimnoch, whose text is taken from Watts’ hymn. Combining approaches from research on children’s poetry with ones from the interface of children’s literature and hymnody, the article also integrates a digitally supported close reading. The hymn texts were inputted into f4analyse, a software used in text linguistics and the social sciences, which allows for the assignment of categories, such as positive self-connotation of the ›singing I‹ or rhyme patterns. In conclusion, the article evaluates the potential of such a digitally supported research methodology for future research at the intersection of children’s literature and digital humanities.
KW - Literature studies
KW - Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung
KW - Media and communication studies
KW - Kinder- und Jugendmedienwissenschaft
U2 - 10.21248/gkjf-jb.64
DO - 10.21248/gkjf-jb.64
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 2021
SP - 36
EP - 50
JO - Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung
JF - Jahrbuch der Gesellschaft für Kinder- und Jugendliteraturforschung
SN - 2568-4477
ER -