Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book

Under the influence of market orientation,the creation of children’s literature has fallen into a dilemma of homogenization,resulting in children readers gradually becoming tired of similar children’s literature works.In this dilemma,a new type of children’s literature emerged,that is,children’s literature with taboo topics.This kind of children’s literature is very popular among children readers because it brings them to a new world,experiences various adventures that they cannot experience in the real world,and gives them a new reading experience.However,another issue arises: how to innovate the theme and content of children’s literature while eliminating the inherent negativity of taboo topics.The Graveyard Book is a novel published by Neil Gaiman,a representative writer of the new generation of Western fantasy literature,in 2008.This work mainly tells the story of a human boy named Nobody who accidentally came to the graveyard after his family was murdered and was raised by the deceased there.This story is full of strange colors,including murder,ghosts,school violence,and other taboo topics in children’s literature.This seems to be inconsistent with the bright tone of children’s literature,but it has been widely praised and won numerous awards since its release.However,such works are rarely successfully published in domestic children’s literature,and the study of taboo topics in children’s literature has not received corresponding attention in the domestic academic community.Therefore,this article takes The Graveyard Book as the research object to explore the taboo topics contained therein,as well as how Neil Gaiman uses his writing skills to weaken or even eliminate the negative impact of taboo topics,in order to fill the gap in domestic research and provide new ideas for the innovation of children’s literature in China.The present thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter is the background overview of the whole thesis,which introduces the purpose and significance of this study,the content and background of The Graveyard Book,and provides a literature review on taboo topics and The Graveyard Book at home and abroad.The second chapter introduces taboo topics in children’s literature,defines them according to their characteristics and reasons,and analyzes the rationality of using taboo topics in children’s literature.The third chapter discusses the taboo topics in The Graveyard Book on the dimension of representation,and lists the taboo topics contained in The Graveyard Book from three perspectives: background,characters,and plot.Chapter Four analyzes Neil Geiman’s writing skills to alleviate the negative impact of taboo topics from a rhetorical perspective,and summarizes them into five aspects: defamiliarization,gamification,symbolization,materialization,and humor.Chapter Five analyzes the value of using taboo topics in children’s literature,and believes that the rational use of taboo topics can bring emotional,educational,and growth value to children readers.The sixth chapter is the conclusion,which summarizes the full text and reaffirms the significance and value of the study.