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Post-colonial Literature for Children – EDU32PLC Week 8 Lecture 15

Post-colonial Literature for Children – EDU32PLC Week 8 Lecture 15. Cowboys And Indians. © La Trobe University, David Beagley, 2005. Some references.

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Post-colonial Literature for Children – EDU32PLC Week 8 Lecture 15

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  1. Post-colonial Literature for Children – EDU32PLCWeek 8 Lecture 15 Cowboys And Indians © La Trobe University, David Beagley, 2005

  2. Some references Thompson, M.K. (2001) A Sea of Good Intentions: Native Americans in books for children. The Lion and the Unicorn. [online] 25(3): 353-374. Available: Project Muse Stephens, J. and Watson, K. (eds) (1994) Encounter/ Death of the Iron Horse. In From Picture Book to Literary Theory. Sydney: St Clair Press Simmon, S. (2003) The Invention of the Western Film. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Griffin-Pierce, T. (1995) The Encyclopedia of Native America. New York: Michael Friedman

  3. Question from the tutes How do you get your information [about Native Americans]? • US Western history has been written by the white man, mainly in celebration of himself, but the Indians have refused to fade into the landscape as so much vegetation or part of the wild life. (Jay Monaghan, First there were Indians. Available: http://www.jcs-group.com/oldwest/courage/indian1.html • Stereotyping in film and literature as: • Savage beast, drunken dependent, happy-go-lucky child, vanishing Indian, part of the wild landscape, spiritual fraud, discovered, culturally immature, occupants not owners, invisible … all noted in Thompson’s review of current novels

  4. e.g. Sitting Bull and Custer

  5. Return to the beginning Encounter and Death of the Iron Horse • Both rewrite a story • Retell a “familiar” situation, to disrupt the assumptions on which its stereotypes are founded • Both are written by a member of the colonizing culture, not the dispossessed • Both assume the voice of that dispossessed culture • Both aim to present the perspective of that culture to enable a reconsideration of their situation

  6. Similarities • Frame the story with historical note • This highlights the distinction between European/modern/historical/realist perspective and the Indigenous/past/legendary/childlike perspective • Open story with dream • Dream warns of impending doom • Call to recognize danger is not heeded • Artefacts, actions and Europeans are (mis) interpreted through approximation into own culture • Violence is underplayed • Ultimate dispossession and tragedy ends story

  7. Themes • Opposition to invasion is pointless and doom is inevitable - Europeans will win • The rationale/justice/morality of the Europeans’ behaviour is not questioned directly, but simply hinted as a value • Focus of key story action is possessions and attitude to ownership • Dreams, legends and Indigenous worldview vs Facts, history and European worldview • Defining the colonizer and the colonized

  8. Authorial voices • Illustrations • Mood • Narrative voice - assumption of indigenous perspective and authority to judge • Language and expression, especially cultural approximation

  9. Where have we got our information? Read Thompson’s article to compare representation of Australian Aboriginal life, culture and history with Amerind experience. Observe how deeply embedded the US western stereotypes are in our culture

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