Doctoral Dissertations

S. David Gill

Date of Award

5-1998

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Education

Major Professor

Theodore W. Hipple

Committee Members

Colleen Gilrane, Karl Jost, Lester Knight

Abstract

Respected as a critic, editor, and a writer. Chambers is recognized as an expert in the field of children's and Young Adult literature. He has published novels, academic works, and edited mystery series. He and his wife publish periodicals devoted to children's literature, and to top it off, he has written plays. His career has spanned four decades: because he is a meticulous writer, however, his production is more like that of a James Joyce (to whom he has been favorably compared) than that of more prolific writers. More popular in his native England than in the US, Chambers is a stylist of the first order, an engaging writer of novels that are unsurpassed in linguistic skill. In a 1984 article for English Journal, G. Robert Carlsen wrote that "[t]he best that can be said for most teenage books is that they are good journalistic writing." Chambers work is far from journalistic, owing more to the traditions of William Faulkner than to the pedestrian prose symptomatic of many Young Adult novels. One of Chambers' novels, Dance on My Grave (1982), was selected as ALA Best Books for Young Adults. Another, Breaktime, was a School Library Journal "Best Book" (Spring 1979). He has received international acclaim for other children's books, and is a noted scholar/critic of children's literature. This dissertation explores the life history of an accomplished writer, critic, and scholar. It also turns a critical eye toward Chambers' work in order to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of those works. Chambers has written two types of adolescent novels, each aimed at a different audience. The novels in his yet-to-be-completed sextet are meant to appeal to the brightest, most literate young adult readers. They are complex works, both stylistically and thematically, and they have influenced critics to ask more of novelists who write for young adults. His other novels are simpler books written in traditional narrative, but they still display his enormous stylistic talents. Chapter One of this dissertation is a short introduction to Chambers. Chapter Two looks at Chambers as a writer, while Chapter Three provides detailed biographical information about him. The analysis of his "sextet" comprises Chapter Four. The "minor" works are treated in Chapter Five. Chapter Six looks at the work Chambers is currently completing and attempts to predict the directions in which his career will go in the next few years.

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