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Picture Books. CMNS 320 2 Feb 2006 Ben Woo. The Children’s Book. Why do do children have a literature of their own?. Moral and spiritual instruction Literacy and education Entertainment and pleasure. Why do do children have a literature of their own?. Preserving the canon Bonding
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Picture Books CMNS 320 2 Feb 2006 Ben Woo
Why do do children have a literature of their own? • Moral and spiritual instruction • Literacy and education • Entertainment and pleasure
Why do do children have a literature of their own? • Preserving the canon • Bonding • Therapy and Socialization
A Brief History of the Children’s Book • First books • “Mother Goose” adaptations of oral culture (sagas, ballads, tall tales, and rhymes) • 1600: Reformation • Alphabet books, nursery rhymes, folk tales • Religious tracts • 1700: Schooling • ‘the greats’/ texts books: literacy a disciplining of consciousness and training for civility • opening new vistas: history, geography broadens scope
A Brief History of the Children’s Book • 1800: Children’s Literature • Literature for its own sake: fantasy, imagination, fairy tales, folk tales and adventure stories • The canon of kid’s lit: Alice, Peter Pan, and Pooh • Delights of the imaginary world (sprites and animals; mystery and gentle humour)
A Brief History of the Children’s Book • 1930 and on: Mass Market • From children’s literature to children’s media and popular culture • Comics, cinema, radio, and television begin to compete with children’s books as sources for stories
The Genealogy of Narrative • Stories in Oral Culture: • Story-telling: Drama, play, myth, saga, religion • Role of Memory • The art of conversation • Voice and rhythm
The Genealogy of Narrative • Books in modern culture • The literacy agenda: reading and writing as techniques of rationality • Reading to Kids: • The cultural agenda: knowledge, religion, civility and appropriate stories • The canon • Reading for Pleasure: • Autonomous zone of children’s literature • Liberated imagination
The Genealogy of Narrative • Rise of Mass Mediated Culture: • Translation of folklore: Disney films and mass popular culture • Exposing the Secrets: blurring the boundaries between adult and child access to knowledge • Eroding the family sharing of stories • Ideological: Sanitization/contamination of Folk tales • Commodification of culture: audiences rather than children
Children’s Book Publishing in Canada • According to Statistics Canada: • 66% of children’s books sold in Canada are by Canadian authors • Canadian publishers have a total of 6 565 children’s book titles in print • In 2000-01, Canadian publishers sales of children’s books (both their own titles and ones licensed from foreign authors) totaled $194 235 000
Characteristics of Children’s Literature • Visual • Fantastic • Fun with language
Two Moral Panics • Literacy • Delinquency
“Wonder Woman … is always a horror type. She is physically very powerful, tortures men, has her own female following, is the cruel, "phallic" woman. While she is a frightening figure for boys, she is an undesirable ideal for girls, being the exact opposite of what girls are supposed to want to be.”
“Only someone ignorant of the fundamentals of psychiatry and of the psychopathology of sex can fail to realize a subtle atmosphere of homoerotism which pervades the adventures of the mature ‘Batman’ and his young friend ‘Robin.’”
