Evil Children in the Popular Imagination

Focusing on narratives with supernatural components, Karen J. Renner argues that the recent proliferation of stories about evil children demonstrates not a declining faith in the innocence of childhood but a desire to preserve its purity. From novels to music videos, photography to video games, the evil child haunts a range of texts and comes in a variety of forms, including changelings, ferals, and monstrous newborns. In this book, Renner illustrates how each subtype offers a different explanation for the problem of the 'evil' child and adapts to changing historical circumstances and ideologies.

Karen J. Renner is Lecturer of English at Northern Arizona University, USA. She is the editor of The 'Evil' Child in Literature, Film, and Popular Culture (2012) and the author of articles that have appeared in such journals as Frame: Journal of Literary Studies, Red Feather: An International Journal of Children's Visual Culture, and Film Studies: An International Review.