Title: Children
1- Childrens Literature in a Postmodern World
2Childrens Lit Simple? Hardly.
- Deconstructing childrens literature
- Understanding dominant ideologies
- Cultural myths
- Narrative aesthetic representations
- Our insights derive from simplicity
3Moral and Gender Narratives
- Male imperative in early 20th century
4Moral and Gender Narratives
- Little Women feminine piety or feminist
tomboy?
5Censorship of Kiddie Lit
- What is censorship?
- Is it ever okay?
6The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain
(1884)
7Little Red Riding HoodGrimm Fairy Tales
(McLoughlin Bros, 1888 edition)
8A Fishy Tale
- Story Time
- Arlene Sardine, by Christopher Raschka (1998)
9The Merits of Arlene
10The Merits of Arlene
- Vegetarianism
- Dont eat dead animals
- including fish
11The Merits of Arlene
- Farming and Fishing
- Noble Professions
- of land and sea
12The Merits of Arlene
- Altruism
- Self-Sacrifice for the Common Good
- suicide bombers?
- There are those who do not fear death the
promise of immortality
13The Merits of Arlene
- Self-Love and Acceptance
- Arlene accepts her normative fate
- It is what it is.
- Im a sardine. I die. Thats what I do.
- Get used to it.
14The Merits of Arlene
15The Merits of Arlene
- The price of giving in to your oppressors
- DEATH
16The Merits of Arlene
- So You Want to Be a Sardine.
- These are the consequences.
- Celebrate
- Conform
- Accept
- Die
- and that may be okay.
17Fantasy in Childrens Fiction
- The appeal?
- Metaphorical portal
18Hieronymous Bosch left and right wings of Last
Judgment triptych (ca. 1500)
19Fantasy in Childrens Fiction
- can be said to hover between the states of
perception that William Blake had labeled
innocence and experience. From the vantage point
of experience, an adult imagination re-creates an
earlier childhood self in order to steer it
toward the reality principle. From the vantage
point of innocence . . . That childhood agent may
resist the imposition of adult values. . . . - U.C. Knoepflmacher, The Balancing of Child and
Adult An Approach to Victorian Fantasies for
Children (1986)
20Hieronymous Bosch central panel of the Last
Judgment triptych (ca. 1500)
21(No Transcript)
22Hieronymous Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights
(ca. 1500)
23Fantasy in Childrens Fiction
- The Literary Construction
- Beginning Fictional Reality
- Middle Adventure, Dream, Magic
- End Resolution, or Return to Reality
24Fantasy in Childrens Fiction
- The Fictional Reality
- May embody normative middle class values
- Represents safety, predictability
- Ignorant Bliss
25Fantasy in Childrens Fiction
- The Magical Adventure
- Complete defiance of natural laws
- Indulgence in forbidden wishes emotions
- Dangerous tragedy
26Fantasy in Childrens Fiction
- The Return to Reality
- Enter, perform symbolic task, return
- Enter, dream, return
- Enter, locate fantasy, repeat
27Fantasy in Childrens Fiction