{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Literary Studies","slug":"new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453","podcast_index_feed_id":1048453,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT7489921391","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/2ca1ec9c-f032-11e8-b6fd-271dec2bac56/image/9b24a0e039edab7d8d6a4dedc3b8baca.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":2751,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies","last_synced_at":"2026-09-15T16:21:04.580879+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453"},"episode":{"title":"Courtney Weikle‑Mills, \"Sugarcoated Ethics: Children’s Literature and Atlantic Enslavement\" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)","slug":"courtney-weikle-mills-sugarcoated-ethics-children-s-literature-and-atlantic-enslavement-johns-hopkins-up-2026","published_at":"2026-08-29T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/courtney-weikle-mills-sugarcoated-ethics-children-s-literature-and-atlantic-enslavement-johns-hopkins-up-2026","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK2651751608.mp3","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK2651751608.mp3","summary":"What if children’s literature was never as innocent as we imagine? In Sugarcoated Ethics: Children’s Literature and Atlantic Enslavement (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026), the relationship between childhood reading and Atlantic slavery is brought into sharp focus. The book argues that children’s literature did not merely emerge alongside the plantation economy; it was deeply shaped by it. Sugar, sweetness, moral instruction, and domestic comfort were all tied to systems of enslavement and colonial trade, even as the violence behind them was softened or erased in stories for young readers. The book also examines how ideas of white civility shaped childhood. White children, particularly girls, were cast as symbols of innocence, refinement, and moral feeling, while Black children were excluded from those same protections. Through analyses of persecuted-heroine narratives, missionary education, and colonial schooling, the study reveals how children’s literature helped normalise racial hierarchy across the British Empire. Yet the project is equally attentive to resistance and alternative ethical traditions. Afro-Caribbean oral storytelling, including Anansi tales, songs, and folktales, emerges as a powerful counterarchive. These traditions preserved histories of survival, collective memory, and resistance that colonial print culture often attempted to suppress. The discussion of the “Queen Mary” Fireburn song, for instance, highlights how storytelling became a form of ethical education and cultural continuity across generations. One of the book’s most striking contributions is its global scope. Children’s texts on slavery circulated far beyond Britain and the Caribbean, travelling to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East via missionary and imperial networks.…","meta_description":"What if children’s literature was never as innocent as we imagine? In Sugarcoated Ethics: Children’s Literature and Atlantic Enslavement (Johns…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3552,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/episodes/courtney-weikle-mills-sugarcoated-ethics-children-s-literature-and-atlantic-enslavement-johns-hopkins-up-2026/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/courtney-weikle-mills-sugarcoated-ethics-children-s-literature-and-atlantic-enslavement-johns-hopkins-up-2026.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}