Research (and Consultancy?)
Files are bought, some notes scribbled: time to use this area of the blog for more considered notes on the themes that have come to dominate: children’s literature and outdoors, and more specifically how do authors of books for young children depict outdoors.
Wittenham Clumps 2009
Following initial explorations of themes around woodland and children’s stories, such as this and more recently this I want to look at this issue:
What themes can be discerned in the depiction of the outdoors environment in young children’s picture books?
It has pedagogical implications, in that a growing amount of literature suggests that children (and their parents) are finding access to outdoor play problematic, and that this access is being facilitated in a number of ways by schools. However, I would like to take the critical standpoint of viewing the books I critique as part of a sub-genre of literature rather than as pedagogical tools. This gives the focus back to the author and text/illustrations, and would allow me to explore the works in more critical depth, drawing on historically embedded themes from traditional tales (Jacobs, Grimm, Perrault, in critical work such as Zipes and Beckett), as well as psychoanalysis (Donald Winnicott, Sigmund Freud, Eric Berne) and current literary theory, particularly (perhaps) recent developments in ecocriticism.
November 15th, 2009 at 12:29 am
[...] Research (and Consultancy?) [...]
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Is McMillan’s ‘Sky’ still out of reach?
Taking Chambers’ view of how we are affected by what we read, (The Reading Environment: How Adults Help Children Enjoy Books, 1991, p.13) Red Riding Hood can become anything the reader would like her to become, can’t she?
However, if we have this freedom; this ability to ‘alter’ the characters to suit our own needs/desires, is the challenge for authors what Martin Waddell refers to as a ‘Wuthering Heights moment’: the moment children can identify with? -
http://www.jubileebooks.co.uk/jubilee/magazine/authors/martin_waddell/interview.asp (Paragraph 5)
Waddell admits he ‘objects to the idea that picture books are used as a pushy educational tool’ (Paragraph 7) but I do find he has picked up on (and tries to alleviate) children’s fear of the dark in his ‘Can’t you sleep, Little Bear?’ and, as an EYs’ practitioner, I have utilized this as a discussion point amongst a group of 3 and 4 year olds.
But, contemplating this further, while outdoor play has been recognized as an important part of children’s development and learning, I am lead to ponder how many opportunities children actually have to experience being outdoors at night-time: to overcome their fear of the dark; to be able to look up at the sky and be stimulated to ask questions about the moon and the stars from looking at them for real; rather than through a page in a book?
Do we perhaps need more of these opportunities?: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/darkskygalloway
I am reminded of McMillan and Rousseau yet again.