Susan Louise Stewart addresses non-western depictions by westerners in Gloria Whelan’s Homeless Bird and Deborah Ellis’s Parvana’s Journey in her article “Beyond Borders: Reading ‘Other’ Places in Children’s Literature.” Stewart claims that multicultural texts are significant, and that diverse perspectives in conjunction with western existence and beliefs are poignant to a young student’s education. But multicultural literature is dismal, in regards to works about other places and experiences by non-westerners with a lack of the “other” and its representations in the western canon. Stewart presents asymmetrical arguments on the two North American authors and their texts as she outlines the strengths and weaknesses that can arise when depicting the non-west by the west. Stewart claims the importance of being conscious of appropriation, authorial ideological agendas, and the Americanized narrative in representations of the non-west by westerners. Products of nationhood, these factors can create a skewed sense of the other in order to comprehend international texts that fall outside of the western perspective. Stewart illustrates the lack of international voices in children’s literature with statistics of the published authors’ nationality and non-white status. She considers together books that are written by particular groups with books that are written about particular groups. This presents the idea that a writer of multicultural heritage will ultimately depict situations about their lineage, which may not be the case. This belief regarding authorial intent contradicts the aim of white authors who write about what is foreign; the designated other. Stewart’s statement that “it is disconcerting to note that more books are written a... ... middle of paper ... ...templates for strong and weak western narratives of other places but lacks literary rigor. Even so, both are equally important for the education of young people in a larger, global setting with diverse experiences and cultures trying to understand one another. She draws attention to voice appropriation, authorial national ideological agendas, and the Americanized slant in representations of the non-west by westerners. The presence of Americanized interpretation and editing can cause a crooked depiction of the other, ultimately telling us more about ourselves than about them. Work Cited Stewart, Susan Louise. “Beyond Borders: Reader ‘Other’ Places in Children’s Literature.” Children’s Literature in Education 39.2 (2008): 95-105. Springer E-Books. Proxy. Queen’s University Lib., Kingston. 1 Nov. 2010 < http://www.springerlink.com.proxy.queensu.ca/books/ >
In Chapter 2 of Children’s Books in Children’s Hands: A Brief Introduction to their Literature, the authors talk about the 12 main elements of a literary work: genre, plot, setting, characterization, theme, point of view, intersexuality, tone, mood, style, voice, and the stance of the implied reader (Temple, Martinez, and Yokota 24). All of these literary elements capture the reader’s imagination and creates a successful piece of literature. However, the authors stress the importance of genre in Chapter 2, so I will briefly go over the different types of genres there are in literature and how it affects the readers greatly.
Good evening and welcome to tonight’s episode of Learning Literature. Tonight we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Gattaca by analysing the techniques text producers employ to construct representations of social issues relating to marginalised groups. We will focus on two classic pieces of literature, Ken Kessey’s, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, as well as Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca. Through a range of techniques, the text producers have included representations of freedom and independence, power, as well as discrimination in each of their respective texts.
the prejudice, hate and violence that seem to be so deeply entrenched in America's multiracial culture and history of imperialism, Takaki does offer us hope. Just as literature has the power to construct racial systems, so it also has the power to refute and transcend them… The pen is in our hands.
In the article How Banning Books Marginalizes Children, the author, Paul Ringel, states that approximately fifty-two percent of the books banned in the last ten years illustrate “diverse content”, such as race, religion, gender identity, etc. Ringel believes that attitudes about which books are “appropriate” for kids to read have too often suppressed stories about different cultures and life experiences. He basis his argument around the pretext that when libraries stop the banning it will allow kids to learn how to navigate imaginary worlds filled with differences and apply those lessons to their own lives.
Madigan, Dan. "The Politics of Multicultural Literature for Children and Adolescents: Combining Perspectives and Conversation." Language Arts. 70.3 (1993): 168-176. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Literary text sheds light on different erasures through which a dominant Canadian national narrative of benevolence and tolerance emerges. In What We All Long For by Dionne Brand., this tolerance becomes more specific as readers are able to see a struggle in race, generational difference and identity. However, these concepts lead to the creation space negotiation in order to establish Toronto as a home. Through this negotiation there are two kinds of erasures that emerge: fictional and historical. The fictional erasures work to create an unconscious space for the characters. This means that the characters navigate spaces in an intangible manner where they face issues that are not directly impacting to them. It is brought on or is created by the issues they ‘actually’ face. The ‘actual’ issues that these characters face are then transposed into a greater erasure that presents itself as a historical erasure. The fictional erasure becomes a mirror of the historical erasure as it sheds light on how the text manoeuvre through space and time in the text. Though Brand addresses the issues of tolerance while enabling a dominant national Canadian narrative, the novel reveals the generational differences as the vehicle to the negotiation of space. The negotiation of space draws attention to the fictional and historical erasures that show white hegemony as Brand illuminate the issues of immigration, blackness and generational gaps.
After a four week survey of a multitude of children’s book authors and illustrators, and learning to analyze their works and the methods used to make them effective literary pieces for children, it is certainly appropriate to apply these new skills to evaluate a single author’s works. Specifically, this paper focuses on the life and works of Ezra Jack Keats, a writer and illustrator of books for children who single handedly expanded the point of view of the genre to include the experiences of multicultural children with his Caldecott Award winning book “Snowy Day.” The creation of Peter as a character is ground breaking in and of itself, but after reading the text the reader is driven to wonder why “Peter” was created. Was he a vehicle for political commentary as some might suggest or was he simply another “childhood” that had; until that time, been ignored? If so, what inspired him to move in this direction?
Duncombe, Stephen. "Introduction to The Cultural Resistance Reader." Critical Encounters with Texts: Finding a Place to Stand. By Margaret Himley and Anne Fitzsimmons. New York: Custom Pub., 2009. 117-23. Print.
Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) believed it was ‘natural for a “master race” of conquerors to have a mythology based on the “master morality” – in which the strong and powerful deserve to be victorious. Inversely, it was also natural for a “slave race” to have a mythology based on the “slave morality” – in which the meek shall inherit the earth.” (Indick, 2004, p.197). The all powerful, infallible ‘Superman’ hero, named ubermensch, is still present in modern stories, in super hero films for example. However, children are hardly ever in charge, and have to answer to their parents, teachers and other authority figures within society, so it seems unlikely they will relate to the ‘master morality’ of the ubermensch, as they often lack power and authority within their own society. Therefore, the underdog hero, or ‘untermensch’ is of a greater appeal to children, especially when these characters are victorious against powerful adult characters as the story progresses.
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. “The Claims of a common Culture: Gender, Race, Class and the Canon.” Writing as Re-Vision: A Student’s Anthology. Ed. Beth Alvarado and Barbara Cully. Needham Heights: Simon & Schuster P. 1998. 15-23.
Falconer, Rachel. The Crossover Novel: Contemporary Children’s Fiction and Its Adult Readership. New York: Routledge, 2009.
As a result, literature has to follow certain guidelines to be classified as Asian American; being placed in a box limits many great pieces of work to gain the recognition they deserve. As Wong and Sumida state, Asian American Literature is a presentation of American culture within Asian American history and culture, rather than a representation of the entire culture. “Asian Americans” is a large and complex, pan-ethnic group of people making it difficult to classify them all under the same stereotypes. Many Asian American works portray Asian Americans as “perpetual aliens or castaways whose cultures tumble nicely and helplessly” (4). This is because Asian Americans create their own culture, a hybrid of Asian culture and American culture, they don’t fully fit in with American culture just as they don’t fully fit in with Asian culture. Asian American Literature is a reflection of just that, it doesn’t fit into specific guidelines, breaking away from the labels that others create and making its own impact by culturing its readers on being Asian American. Whether the author is Asian American or is solely writing about Asian American culture, it still classifies as Asian American Literature
Smith, Angela. 2006. “Paddington Bear: A Case Study of Immigration and Otherness.” Children’s Literature in Education 37(1). DOI: 10.1007/s10583-005-9453-3.
...our child. Lastly, books can be biased about certain cultures or countries but still it’s the parents right to teach their children the right thing because if people want to write their opinions about other cultures it is the child’s decision to pay attention to it or not. After all, books teach us lessons and if this books are abolished then lessons, ideas and real events of the real world are also banished from students.
Writing has been an important part of every culture from the beginning of time. The illustrations of cavemen have evolved immensely. Today, there are millions of published books. In fact, there are over four hundred books published every month. What happens when these books turn into something more? Is there racism in our children's literature? Ironically, the renowned great works of our past is full of racism. The question that remains, how do we teach our children the great lesson that these brave authors intended?