ENGL 360 Midterm

early hope for children's books

(1657) Johann Comenius publishes Orbis Pictus (The World in Pictures), often called the first picture book, though it is still educational; it is not written for fun! (1693) John Locke proposes children's books be made both available and easy and pleasant to read (1697) Charles Perrault publishes his ~Tales of Mother Goose~ *chapbooks*... what a relief! John Newbery begins publishing exclusively for children in the 18th century - (1744) ~A Pretty Little Pocket Book~ - (1765) ~The History of Little Goody Two Shoes~ - Newberry's books are both educational and entertaining. He literally changes the history of books for children.

children's books come of age: minority books

(1962) Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day (first picture book with a black child as protagonist) awards for minority authors established the number of books by and about minorities increasingly published in the U.S. over the past 50 years

*Johann Comenius publishes Orbis Pictus* (The World in Pictures), often called the *first picture book*, though it is still *educational*; it is not written for fun!

*1657*

*John Locke* proposes the *children's books be made both available* and *easy and pleasant to read*

*1693*

*Charles Perrault* publishes his ~*Tales of Mother Goose*~

*1697*

John *Newbery's* *A Pretty Little Pocket Book*

*1744*

John *Newbery's* ~*The History of Little Goody Two Shoes*~

*1765*

*John Newbery* begins *publishing exclusively for children* - Newbery's books are both *educational* and *entertaining*. He literally *changes the history of books for children*.

*18th century*

*picture books are born*

*1900 - 1950*

*Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit* - *first picture storybook* - pictures and text work together to tell the story

*1902*

*Dr. Seuss* (Theodore Geisel) *publishes his first picture book* - *And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street*

*1937*

- traditional families - obedient, happy children - strict social rules for males and females - traditional values regarding sex, marriage, divorce, gender roles, etc.

*1950 - present*

realistic fiction tends to be optimistic, portraying attractive, smart, carefree, and successful, usually white, children with stable home lives. The literature reflects "the basic decency and restrained good fun that most adults expected"

*1950 - present*

*children's magazines are born*

*19th century*

*rise of the folktale and literary fairy tale* - *Perrault* remains immensely popular - The *Grimms publish their ~Household Tales~* - *Hans Christian Andersen*

*19th century*

*verse becomes entertaining* - Edward Lear - Robert Louis Stevenson

*19th century*

Louisa May Alcott's ~*Little Woman*~: *first novel written specifically for young adult female readers*. While it is in most ways conventional, the protagonist, Jo, is the *first female protagonist who begins to break the stereotypical female mold*

*19th century*

a shift as we see the *first books written specifically to entertain*... but the *moral lesson is almost always included*!

*19th century*

considered the *first great age of children's books*

*19th century*

some of the *best illustrators were illustrators of children's books*

*19th century*

the *fantasy novel is born* - Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. A hallmark because it is nonsense, intended entirely to entertain; no didacticism at all! - George MacDonald

*19th century*

beyond new realism

*American high fantasy rises* to challenge the dominance of British fantasy, most notably that by C.S. Lewis, for children. Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, beginning with The Book of Three (*1964*). *Historical fiction & informational books flourish*. *early readers* - *Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat* was the first one of these (*1957*) *poetry*, especially verse novels, the first of which, Out of the Dust by Karen Heese, was published in *1997*

Twins by Vivian Vande Velde

*This is pure horror.* No longer about poverty and starvation. Again, why? Think of the children, and especially twins, that you have seen in horror films. Children as cold, heartless, and murderous are particularly horrific because we expect them, especially at six and seven, to be innocent and responsive to love and care. - "Beautiful as the carved marble angels over the doors over a cathedral" (90): stone, cold, not alive. Beautiful exterior implies beautiful interior (cathedral a house of God; holy, pure, good), but these children's beauty does not indicate similar goodness we expect (childlike innocence, trust, loving hearts); it covers murderous hearts. - Silent - Their eyes: "large, pale, unblinking" (92); cold (94) - Faces expressionless . . . just there (91) - Creepy, silent communication (97) that foretells horrific acts (106) - The phrase of judgment and death: "She didn't love/like us," "We didn't like her/ don't like you" *Both the stepmother and the witch are redeemed in this version* Stepmother becomes Isabella, kind and gentle - Offers gifts that exemplify love and care -- Heirlooms that she treasures (watch and ring) -- Clothing that she spent time, labor and pain to sew -- Cakes designed as a "special supper treat" (time, labor, thoughtfulness) - All gifts rejected - Children repay gifts with gift of poisoned porridge. This a horrific inversion of the motif of food as temptation and trap; instead of the witch using food to lure children to their deaths, the children use food to murder stepmom. And we can't help but wonder if they also used to murder mom. - Repeatedly can't bring herself to think ill of the twins Witch becomes the family's neighbor, the baker's widow Widow clearly afraid of the children (96). - While she seeks to keep the children away from her home rather than luring them there, they invade it - She is clearly a victim (both of stones in the garden and of murder) - Only the children call her a witch *Weak and silent father remains* This father isn't cowed by the wife, he is silenced by his children He speaks in monosyllables begging the children to be kind. Note that the word he speaks is "children," a term which seems wholly inappropriate when applied to the twins! *The elements of the children's abandonment in the forest are all inverted.* The twins put the stones in the widow's garden: pure malice. They crumble the cake and throw it away on the path, again, this is just mean. They are not abandoned in the forest; they run away in order to kill the widow, and apparently, to eat all of her baked goods. Parents search for the twins for two days. *The Ending Subverted* When twins return home, they will find only father, but this is because stepmom has run away, not because she has died.

classics produced

*early in the 20th century* *1900 - 1950*

children's books come of age: *1900 - 1950*

*picture books are born* - (1902) Beatrix Potter's ~The Tale of Peter Rabbit~ (the first picture storybook: pictures and text work together to tell the story) - (1928) Wanda Gag's ~Millions of Cats~ (credited with being the first American picture book) - Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel) publishes his first picture book in 1937 (~And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street~) classics produced early in the century - (1900) L. Frank Baum's ~The Wonderful Wizard of Oz~ (the first classic modern fantasy produced in America) - (1906) J.M. Barrie's ~Peter Pan~ - (1908) L.M. Montgomery's ~Anne of Green Gables~ - (1911) Frances Hodgson Burnett's ~The Secret Garden~ - two immortal fantasies: (1908) Kenneth Grahame's ~The Wind in the Willows~ (animal fantasy) & (1926) A.E. Milne's ~Winnie-the-Pooh~ (toy fantasy) The Stratemeyer Syndicate begins publishing the most popular series books of all time - Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and many others! - pre-outlined plots and ghost writers whose work is published under various pseudonyms (Caroly Keene & Frank Dixon)

Chinese version of LRRH

- *children escape through clever ruse* - feels more contemporary than other tales, but it is not! - this wolf, while clever enough to get into the house, is not clever enough to outsmart three children; he never has a chance against these tricksters - the insinuation of rape is still present in this tale in the wolf's invitation to go to bed, but it seems far less of a threat than it does in the previous tales. What's more, the children never really even come close to the bed. - this tale is funny once it becomes apparent that the gullible wolf is really no threat

historical concept of childhood

- *no concept of childhood until the 18th century* - children were seen as little adults - the only literature written for them was *didactic* - for pleasure, they read the same books that their parents did

the versions of LRRH that changed everything

- Perrault - Brothers Grimm they are entirely responsible for taking a naive, but quick thinking little girl who can save herself, and turning her into a hopelessly naive little girl who is eaten.

Grimms' version of LRRH

- Perrault's wolf & red garment remain - *happy ending restored through paternalistic hunter* - balance: hunter (male goodness) vs. wolf (male wickedness) & concerned mother & two endings - but still, the hopelessly naive child is eaten and our image of Red is one of weakness and stupidity

Perrault's version of LRRH

- adapted for high society - wolf as predator and interloper - *gave us the red hood* (symbolic of sexuality?) - happy ending from Grandmother story replaced by tragic one (goes against folk take custom & fits Perrault's moral) - *addition of moral* changed fairy tales forever because instilled belief that exists even today that tales should carry morals - more importantly, it changed this particular fairy tale forever by replacing a strong, clever girl with a naive, weak one who is killed by the wolf - though this is a literary tale, it was reabsorbed into oral culture (and changed the nature of the tale forever)

Flossie and the Fox

- female trickster tradition - set in American South; reminiscent of Brer Rabbit - this fox never has a chance; Flossie plays him from the beginning - also, the rape motif seems absent from this telling. We simply see a predator intent on a basket of goodies; the little girl is never in his sights.

*The Story of Grandmother*

- quite possibly similar to the version Perrault knew - path of pins and needles - crudity - *strip tease* - *Red outwits wolf and escapes* - some scholars have argued that *Red's eating of grandmother* is possibly symbolic of the passing of the generations: the old generation can no longer bear children to assure the continuation of the community, so she must give way to the younger who will now bear and raise the next generation

Tartar's introduction to Hansel and Gretel

1) "Food—its presence and absence—shapes the social world of fairy tales in profound ways. . . . fairy tales often take us squarely into the household, where everyone seems to be anxious both about what's for dinner and about who's for dinner. Children perpetually under the double threat of starvation and cannibalism" (179) a. Cannibalistic fiends 2) H &G set in time of famine 3) Cruel stepmother in Grimms' tale a creation of Wilhelm Grimm a. The oral version actually had biological mother and father conspire to abandon the children b. Villainous stepmother re-emerges in woods as monster equipped with powers far more formidable than those she exercised at home (stepmother becomes witch) • Witch becomes more and more complex and formidable in succeeding Grimm editions • Stepmother at home intends to starve the children • Witch—seemingly bountiful—but more exaggerated form of maternal malice b/c she feeds children only to fatten them so she can eat them 4) Profusion of references to food in tale of parental abandonment that ends with reunion of children w/their father a. Bettelheim—psychological reading of the tale—oral greed, denial, regression of the children; children ready to live happily again w/parents b. Tatar points out error w/this reading: mother eradicated; her death eliminates "twin dreads of starvation and the fear of being devoured" (182) 5) "The Children and the Ogre" tales a. Fathers reunited; mothers remain menacing & cruel to end b. Chodorow's psychoanalytic reading • Father's separate and special status b/c of traditional absence in early childhood rearing, symbolic of autonomy & of public, social world. Development defined in terms of growing away from mother who represents dependence & domesticity • Children have "successfully negotiated the path from dependence to autonomy by eradicating the mother and joining forces with the father" (182) c. Ill will and evil so often personified as adult female figures in fairy tales raise some weighty questions that challenge the notion of fairy tales as therapeutic reading for children [this is how Bettelheim says fairy tales can/should be used] (182)" 6) Juniper Tree (My Mother Slew Me; My Father Ate Me) • Can be seen as male version of Snow White • Horror of decapitation & cannibalism, esp. murder by mom, being eaten by dad 7) Fathers and father figures do not always fare well—ogres of British and French folklore a. Molly Whuppie: little girl, trickster figure b. Molly Whuppie and Tom Thumb—comic relief in form of spunky adventurers who use their wits to turn tables on adversaries with daunting powers c. Cruikshank's warning about trickster figures and their bad examples for children! Tatar: no wonder adults more likely to prefer sufferings of "God-fearing" siblings of H & G to irreverent antics of Molly or Tom.

growing up (is hard to do)

1. Childhood a new concept 2. Tales in this section about children, and are ambivalent about them 3. Girl as protagonist in most of these tales • More difficult to grow up a girl • Princesses tend to be passive • Peasants willing and able to seize initiative • Only in 2nd half of twentieth century that feminist fairy tales began to challenge the assumptions entrenched in many of the fairy tales [Dr. R: girls should be passive and pretty] 4. Boys tend to be either disadvantaged by small size or are delinquent ne'er do wells. Point: from unpromising beginnings comes winner through "masculine" qualities such as courage, audacity, determination, ruthlessness 5. Presence and power of the mother an issue in many tales; Father is absent or subservient 6. Many of the tales begin with physical hardship—surely based in historical fact (reality) 7. Second phase of tales—reality gives way to fantastic—child overcomes adult. H&K see this as a practical acknowledgement of way world works, rather than as glorification of intrepid youth. [I tend to disagree; I would argue that glorification of the underdog—or child—is a quality of fairy tales] 8. Freudian readings (Bruno Bettelheim) 9. Moral questions of some of the tales ("Jack and the Beanstalk") 10. "The Ugly Duckling"

L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - the first classic modern fantasy produced in America

1900

The Stratemeyer Syndicate begins publishing the most popular series books of all time

1900 - 1950

J.M Barrie's Peter Pan

1906

Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (animal fantasy)

1908

L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables

1908

Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden

1911

A.E. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh (toy fantasy)

1926

Wanda Gag's Millions of Cats - credited with being the first American picture book

1928

Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day - first picture book with a black child as protagonist

1962

Maurice Sendak's *Where the Wild Things Are* - considered the *first picture book that is a work of new realism*

1963

Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy - considered the first novel that is a work of new realism

1964

*chapbooks*

An early type of popular literature printed in early modern Europe. *Produced cheaply*, chapbooks were commonly *small, paper-covered booklets*, usually printed on a single sheet folded into books of 8, 12, 16 and 24 pages.

Hansel & Gretel: Characters of Hansel & Gretel

At first, Hansel the clever one, the one who comforts and rescues sister (man's domain: the woods?) In witch's house, this reverses; Gretel rescues them (woman's domain: the house?) Both children take on aspects of trickster when they have ascendancy over the adults (Hansel over parents; Gretel over witch) What about the duck episode at the end of the tale? - It is Gretel who thinks of the duck as a way across the water and it is she who talks to the duck. - Hansel looks for technology: bridge or ferry; Gretel sees supernatural option: talking duck who will give the children rides. - Interestingly, earlier in the story, Hansel has made up animal pets/companions to trick the stepmother when he is dropping the pebbles/bread, but there are no animals really connected to him. - Gretel, however, really does interact with an animal in meaningful ways. - Are there any gender issues here? Can we think of any other male/female and animal connections in fairy tales?

Grimms' Snow White: Beauty and Power

Because the issue is beauty, it seems as if there should be a man at the heart of the conflict . . . is there? Are we looking at two women seeking the praise of the same man (i.e. Snow White's father)? Some other man? And then there is the question of beauty as power. Does the queen fear that she will lose power as Snow White grows in beauty? After all, the huntsman disobeys her and chooses, if you will, Snow White because of her beauty. Note the queen's reaction at the end of the story: she "spat out a curse" when she finds out that the young queen is more beautiful than she. She is "horrorstricken" and when she recognizes Snow White, she is "terrified" (122). Why? What does she fear? Certainly Snow White has gained ascendancy over her because of Snow White's beauty; all of the men in the story have resisted or betrayed the queen. At the end, Snow White holds the power and the queen is dead. So . . . female beauty equals power (in a patriarchal world)?

Hansel & Gretel: Children vs. Adults

Children victorious Their success, ironically, allows the survival of the family What do we make of the children taking the witch's treasure? How does this compare to what Molly and Hop O' My Thumb do when they steal the ogres' things? Or does it?

The Subversive Cat in the Hat

Dr. Seuss said of himself, "I'm subversive as hell! . . . I've always had a mistrust of adults. . . . The Cat in the Hat is a revolt against authority, but it's ameliorated by the fact that the Cat cleans everything up at the end."

Faerie Tale Theatre's Snow White

Dressed in pink . . . The first time we see her, she is juggling and excited. This is probably the most action and initiative we see from her in this film. This is also a very childlike behavior. She is clever enough to stop the huntsman from killing her by asking to say her prayers, so it is her prayer that saves her life! He says that he cannot kill anyone as innocent as her. - She knows of no sin in her life - Prays for queen - Forgives huntsman who will kill her She does have a sense of humor and irony: "They must have small appetites." It is her idea to stay, cook, clean, sew, etc. so that she can stay She spends half the show just looking at people, not saying a word; she seems to fit the description that Gilbert & Gubar give of the character. The queen is certainly more interesting than Snow White, but this queen doesn't seem to have anything that Gilbert & Gubar could admire; she is simply narcissistic.

Hansel & Gretel: Overarching Conflicts

Famine and plenty; food at the heart of this story Generational conflict Class Issues: poverty, starvation, rural (woodcutter and family). What kinds of issues do the poor face and what kinds of stories do they tell?

Peter Rabbit: Illustration/Text Pairs

Gooseberry net - Image is active—shows the drama of the story, but the text is low-key; downplays the drama, even acts as a diversion. Text & 1st illustration of Peter caught in the net. The image is very threatening; the text is not (focuses on shoes and buttons). The reader's viewpoint is right at ground level, the level of Peter's eye; this puts us right in the net with Peter. We feel trapped with Peter and we sympathize with him. Lost shoes - Text is active, showing drama, but the image is a distraction. Illustrations and text where Peter loses his shoes. He is running for his life, but the images are static pictures of the shoes with little robins looking over them. Here, the text allows the authorial voice, the voice of authority if you will, to "express in words the identification with Peter" that in other places is "expressed through the images" in the story. Sieve & Boot - Texts focusing on Mr. McGregor, but images focusing on Peter. This keeps our focus and identification with Peter rather than with Mr. McGregor. Trying to trap Peter w/sieve & trying to step on him with his boot. Scarecrow - Variation of the above. Words are descriptive of McGregor, but the illustration makes a stronger comment. The clothes hung up for the scarecrow are Peter's and they dominate the picture while McGregor is a faint image in the background. Also, McGregor's action is humorously depicted as ineffective; birds are all over the scarecrow. Peter by the locked gate - Illustration reinforces the text. Scott says: The picture of Peter [at the gate, unable to get out] is a masterpiece. He is without clothes but, unlike his presentation in earlier unclothed pictures, Peter is not just an animal, for his body, though anatomically accurate . . . is posed in a human stance. He stands upright, one foot resting on the other as he leans against the door, and his left paw rests upon the door above his head, while his right is held against the face. A large tear runs from his eye. The sense of identification with Peter is intense and the mood of entrapment and disillusion emphatic in both the picture and in the events described: the locked door, the too narrow space beneath, the only other living creature unable to speak to him. When Peter begins to cry, his human childlikeness speaks strongly to the reader because the illustration and the verbal text work in harmony to present his hopefulness and fearful exhaustion. The earlier vision of the garden as wealth and Peter as invader has given way to the sense of the garden as a place of fear and captivity and of Peter as its prisoner. (26) In short, Scott argues, Potter's "manipulation of the reader's perception of and sympathy for her protagonist and his challenge of the sociopolitical boundaries she appears to defend is subtle and subversive, for the unmistakable perspective of the illustrations patently and intentionally undermines the studied ambiguous stance of her verbal message"

Hop O' My Thumb & Molly Whuppie

Hop O' My Thumb & Molly Whuppie as trickster figures Hop O' My Thumb & Whuppie the youngest sibling—youngest, weakest, son/daughter overcoming odds, giants, etc.—a common motif in fairy tales Hop O' My Thumb: father the one who instigates getting rid of children; in Molly both seem equally responsible Witch replaced by ogre & his family Ogre kills own children (having been tricked by Hop O' My Thumb or Molly) Hop O' My Thumb & Molly steal ogre's possessions, gain great wealth and spouses with them Errands/labors/trials for king (and others in case of Hop O' My Thumb) - Hop O' My Thumb amasses great wealth, supports family - Molly rewarded with prince! Cleverness, resourcefulness of these heroes Molly as strong female figure Questionable morals? - Do we find any of the things that Hop O' My Thumb or Molly do to the ogre (and his wife and children) problematic? - Of course, ogres are, by fairy tale definition, always evil! Note how the ogre's wife describes him in Hop O' My Thumb. - Also, the children trick the ogres into killing their own children in order to escape with their lives, so maybe we can see the necessity of this . . . - And of course, Molly steals to provide husbands for her sisters . . . clearly a necessity . . . - And Hop O' My Thumb steals from the ogre because . . .?

Maria Tartar's Introduction to Snow White

I. Disney vs. variants from around the world II. Easily identifiable, stable core consistent in all versions A. Steven Swann Jones' 9 Episodes 1. Origin (birth of heroine) 2. Jealousy 3. Expulsion 4. Adoption 5. Renewed jealousy 6. Death 7. Exhibition 8. Resuscitation 9. Resolution B. Story's narrative structure sustained by tension of binary oppositions C. Cannot really account for staying power of the tale III. Bruno Bettelheim vs. Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar (Gilbert & Gubar): powerful staging of mother/daughter conflicts A. Bruno Bettelheim (Freudian critic): Oedipal • Oedipal child needs to preserve positive image of mother, one uncontaminated by anger or hostility, feelings that naturally develop when difference develop between mother & daughter. • Malice of stepmother is only a projection of the heroine's imagination. Jealousy of evil queen has nothing to do with possible competition with daughter; reflects only daughter's envy of mother. B. Gilbert & Gubar (Feminist critics): "essential but equivocal relationship between the angel-woman and the monster-woman" of Western patriarchy. C. Absent father holds a central, if invisible position in this domestic drama. • Bettelheim assumes competition for him between mother and daughter; generational conflict. • Gilbert & Gubar find him acoustically present if physically absent "His, surely, is the voice of the looking glass, the patriarchal voice of judgment that rules the Queen's—and every woman's—self-evaluation." At stake for the women: the love, affection, or approval of the father, "a father whom we see only briefly as the huntsman and hear as the voice in the mirror." D. Discusses Basile's "The Young Slave" and notes that the persecution of the heroine is driven by the aunt's sexual jealousy & concludes that "Basile's tale, one of the earliest recorded versions of 'Snow White,' suggests that the complex psychosexual motivations shaping the plots of fairy tales underwent a process of repression once the social venue for the stories shifted from the household to the nursery." E. Gilbert & Gubar on the conflict in the fairy tale [This argument is one of the most important in the history of feminist criticism—not to mention in the critical history of Snow White—so I will quote Tatar's summary of it in its entirety here.]: Gilbert and Gubar see an intrapsychic drama played out between two possible developmental trajectories, one passive, docile, and compliant with patriarchal norms, the other nomadic, creative, and socially subversive. Gilbert and Gubar invest the figure of the wicked queen with narrative energy so powerful that she becomes the story's most admirable character. For them, she is a "plotter, a plot-maker, a schemer, a witch, an artist, and impersonator, a woman of almost infinite creative energy, witty, wily, and self-absorbed as all artists traditionally are." And it is the queen who foreshadows the destiny of Snow White; once Snow White gains the throne, she will exchange her glass coffin for the imprisonment of the looking-glass: "Renouncing 'contemplative purity,' she must now embark on that life of 'significant action' which, for a woman, is defined as a witch's life because it is so monstrous, so unnatural." F. Gilbert & Gubar's "interpretive cue" from Anne Sexton's "Snow White" IV. The mirror image and glass coffin in feminist criticism: Cultural script in which women are enmeshed in a discourse connecting beauty, death and femininity. Beauty as reflected in the glass and seen through the coffin may be attractive, but its seductions have a sinister, lethal side. A. Gilbert & Gubar: looking glass and coffin the tools patriarchy "suggests" that women use to kill themselves into art B. Elisabeth Bronfen: Beauty masks death, but at same time is connected with death V. Disney's Snow White A. Wicked queen dominates B. Two Hydes: instead of splitting of the mother image into good mother & evil queen, the maternal figure appears only in the realm of evil. C. Polarizes the feminine: murderously jealous and forbiddingly cold woman vs. innocent sweet girl accomplished at housekeeping. D. Housekeeping!! E. Snow White herself completely dull

The Cat in the Hat: The Mother

It is clear to the reader at the end, when the boy narrator asks, "what would YOU do" about the mother's questions, that keeping quiet is the answer. Kids' lack of participation does not absolve them of some guilt for having allowed it. Nor for having let a stranger into the house, especially since the fish warned them not to do it. And, of course, there is always the question of whether the mother would even believe their story about what had happened in her absence. Mother is never seen in the illustrations: we only see her foot and her hand.

The Cat in the Hat: Trickster Cat

Jonathan Cott argues that the Cat in the Hat is an archetypal trickster hero, whose manifestation is perfectly suited—as is Bugs Bunny—for mid-twentieth-century children's appreciation and delight. As Brian Sutton-Smith describes this type of character: "The trickster figure does not just sit down and plan out logical maneuvers; he uses the most outrageous trickery. He . . . baldly mocks authority figures and breaks all societal rules"

Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit: Cautionary Tale?

Mom's warning Peter's disobedience Punishment (?) - Mr. McGregor makes a scarecrow of Peter's clothes (more on this below) - Peter goes to bed without supper

Grimms' Snow White

Most well-known version of the tale. Mother-daughter conflict - Stepmother - While not identified as a witch, she practices magic, which makes her immediately suspect - Queen is powerful and evil: driven by envy and hatred (117); envy leaves her no peace (117) - Snow White is innocent and hopelessly naïve; she falls for the queen's disguise and lies three times!!! Envy/jealousy over beauty the primary conflict - Beauty a source of power in patriarchal world? We tend to think of women's beauty as important only in terms of their relationships to men. - King seems to be alive; there has been no mention of his death, but he is absent from the story. Is the queen's need to be beautiful connected to her desire for her husband's approval? - But why would she need to fear his own daughter as a threat to his approval and desire for his wife? - Note that the huntsman spares Snow White because of her beauty, not because of her age (7 years old) or her innocence (117). Again, beauty as power. - Mother's desire to eat daughter's organs: cannibalism as effort to ingest the beauty of the daughter (117)? - Of course, it is her beauty that the dwarves notice (118) and that causes the prince to love her. Mirror as truth-teller: what does this say of mirrors, perhaps especially those that don't have voices to answer questions? Glass coffin: what do we make of this? - This makes sense only in terms of beauty; the dwarves want to see her - Snow White stays in the coffin "years and years" and apparently grows into a woman. - This the second of two glass items that play crucial roles in the story (mirror and coffin). Is there a link? Perhaps to seeing and being seen? Snow White and the Dwarves: While she is with them, she performs domestic duties; learns the skills that a woman must have in order to run her own home. The time here seems to be part of becoming an adult. The time in the coffin, however, seems to provide the time to physically become an adult. Dance of Death in the Red Shoes - Witches must, after all, burn. - This is horrific, and we must wonder if Snow White planned it . . . remember what Hallett and Karasek said about where the new generation eventually ends up

Faerie Tale Theatre's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Notice that in the opening monologue, Shelley Duvall, describes the story as being about a "jealous queen whose vanity destroys her and almost destroys our heroine." How interesting that the queen is the focus of this description!! Not Snow White, despite the fact that Snow White is called the heroine. This is very interesting in light of Gilbert & Gubar's focus on the wicked queen in their analysis of the tale! Two temptations (lace and apple) The prince tells his court magician about the evil stepmother, and he curses the queen "with a fitting end to your lack of grace" Her punishment: black mirrors so that she can no longer look at herself . . . so she throws a fit! Note, however, that she is not punished with loss of beauty, which considering our discussion about beauty as power is very interesting. How does this affect our reading of the story?

Faerie Tale Theatre's Prince Charming

Ok, a prince singing for love . . . and "always searching for love" (Good grief!) Loves her for her beauty: "she is exquisite." Love at first sight; immediate marriage This prince seems more than a little ridiculous

The Cat in the Hat: The Fish

Opposition of fish and cat creates the tension in the story. Fish represents the mother. Notice the fish's knowing look at the reader in the last illustration; this contrasts with the children's wide-eyed speechlessness at their mother's question about what they had done all day. The fish makes eye contact with the reader and assures him/her that something did go on but that silence is the better part of valor in this case.

Faerie Tale Theatre's The Mirror

Our narrator and a male voice. He makes value judgments from the first time we see him, even in his facial expressions. Note that he volunteers his change of opinion about the queen's beauty and announces that Snow White is more beautiful than the queen! He also gives advice about how the queen should behave! As with the mirror in the Grimms' tale, this mirror also tells the truth (if it does not, it will shatter into pieces). By the time the queen asks "Mirror, mirror" after the apple, he just sounds bored. Laughs at what happens to the queen. How do we read this mirror in the context of Gilbert & Gubar? Is he the patriarchal voice of judgement or is there something else going on here? Is he simply a voice of judgement against very bad behavior?

"Mirror, Mirror" by Shel Silverstein

Presented as a dialogue Funny, of course This queen imminently practical! - Why put up with a mirror that tells us things we don't like? - Have we ever wondered why the queen keeps asking the mirror a question that only causes her pain? This queen threatens, not Snow White— the daughter/competition— but the bearer of the bad news— and the presumably male voice! Changes the dynamic of the original tale. - Removes the competition between women for the love and approval of the husband/father - Removes the jealousy between women over beauty - Removes the negative relationship between women and male evaluation of them - Note the illustration . . . this queen is hardly beautiful! What does this do to the dynamic of the tale?

The Cat in the Hat: The Children

Problem: what to do to entertain themselves. Even as the cat is making the mess, the kids don't know what to do. The only action they take is to catch the Things and to order the Cat and his pets out of the house. For the rest of the story they are innocent bystanders. The kids are consistently pictured in the corners of the two-page spreads, looking on astonished. This separation of the children from the main action of the story allows the child reader to participate in the fun of the anarchy and upset without becoming a guilty participant in the mess that results. Still, the children in the story are not without involvement; when their mother's arrival is imminent, the fish asks of them, "what will she do to us?" Certainly their mother will not hold them blameless. They will be responsible for cleaning up the mess, even if they did not make it themselves.

The Young Slave

Published in 1634, one of the earliest recorded versions of the tale (Italian) Snow White & Sleeping Beauty (fairies and curses)? Notice that Lisa grows from 7 year old child to an adult woman while entombed in the 7 crystal caskets (as did Snow White presumably). Aunt vs niece (broader familial conflict than the mother/daughter conflict that is more well-known today) - At least this wife lives at the end! - Uncle gets Lisa a handsome husband "of her own choice"!! Unjustified jealousy - "and turned by jealousy, and fired by curiosity (the first dower of womankind)" . . . hmm . . . not a high opinion of women . . . This is different from our traditional understanding of mother jealous of daughter's blooming beauty that must replace mother's fading beauty. - Aunt is "suspicious," "jealous," "curious," "bitter," "angry," and "venomous"; maybe not a witch, but certainly evil! - Husband's sexual attention the center of the conflict, rather than a more general sense of power related to beauty in patriarchal world. Aunt thinks that her husband has been sleeping with Lisa. This makes the conflict make more sense. Note also that beauty is not a central issue here; although, the aunt sees Lisa as a "lovely creature" and does everything she can to destroy Lisa's beauty. I think we can understand her behavior more than we can the behavior of Snow White's stepmother. Lisa in some respects a stronger female character than Grimms' Snow White - Comes under aunt's power and is abused (Cinderella-like) - Lisa casts a spell to influence her uncle's actions -- As a worker of magic, she is more a witch than is the aunt/mother -- In this respect, then, she may align somewhat with the witch/stepmother in Grimms' tale - Tells her story to doll -- Question: does she expect her uncle to hear? Or is she just being childish and complaining to doll as children will do? This is actually a motif that is fairly common; in "The Goose Girl," the heroine gets inside an oven and recites her tale while the king and prince listen in. -- At any rate, she effects her rescue (Note: she still must be rescued; she cannot do it herself.) Note that the husband in this tale not the rescuer, but a prize won by perseverance, cleverness (and beauty?) . . . And what do we do with the moral?

Fractured Fairy Tales' "Hansel and Gretel"

Pure nonsense These kids not victims! Family faces starvation because father keeps getting distracted by trees and cuts them down rather than getting food. - Yes, this is nonsense and funny, but does it also reflect the world of the United States in the 1950s (and early 1960s)? Starvation is not a threat. In a post WWII America, humor and nonsense are very popular on the new novelty: television. Think "I Love Lucy," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," and "Andy Griffith." And in the cartoon world, "Looney Tunes," "Tom and Jerry," and "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show." Americans wanted to laugh and live in a "Beaver Cleaver" world. Parents go nuts; Hansel and Gretel set out to rescue family from hunger Notice that in this version, Hansel's plan to drop corn is "for the birds" and Gretel is the clever one who realizes this! Note the description of the witch's house: might be any house in Suburbia! Witch incompetent; the kids are never in danger - only capable of turning children into aardvarks - Burdened by having to uphold "the witches' tradition" - Gretel has to teach her how to ride a broom—"There's a little witch in all us girls"-- This seems significant given presence of female witches throughout tales and Tatar argument about stepmother/mother=witch aspect of H & G. Also, seems to tie into Garth Nix version of the tale. - Witch still orbiting Earth, so she's gone, but not dead! Family remains intact: Mom doesn't die in the interim. Father has learned to hunt! Mom no longer hungry. Stray bullets whizzing around living room. The kids are not responsible for the prosperity of the family as they are in the original tale. They don't return with food or with treasure; they've just managed to go on a rather odd adventure. What do we make of this rather significant change?

Dahl's "The Three Little Pigs"

Red as a bounty -hunter type figure? Hit-girl? Barbie-doll feminine sounds false, one envisions a lovely, dangerous, lying, "bad girl" - notice the illustration details and that when the pig calls, Red is washing her hair Red kills for lovely clothes; exacts a price for her services do we read her as a hero? An anti-hero? innocent, foolish, trusting pig seemingly villainous wolf, but notice the last stanza which almost acts like a moral to the story! How does this paint our Red?

The Cat in the Hat: How the Characters Behave in This Anarchy (from Ruth MacDonald)

Sally (this is also the name of the baby sister in the Dick and Jane books—was Seuss poking fun at this notoriously bad set of primers?) Unnamed brother the narrator. Illustration on second page shows what the kids had planned to do that day. The cat and his friends an antidote for the "abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls" (John Hersey) in most primers. What courtesy there is simply covers the Cat's purpose to make a mess while having fun.

Peter Rabbit: Not a Cautionary Tale: A Tale Encouraging Disobedience

Scott argues that Peter breaks the mold of both a hero and of the period's expectations of what a good child is. He is the exact antithesis of the qualities that Margery Hourihan identifies as necessary for the traditional hero. She argues that "Peter embodies few of the positive aspects and most of the negative ones." He is "small, easily frightened, emotionally driven," a not very rational animal," and while male, he is "no heroic representative of the 'innate superiority of civilized, rational, male order as against wild, emotional, female chaos'". So, Scott argues, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit is thus subversive not only of the period's premises and expectations of what it takes to be a good child--obedient, dutiful, respectful of authority, social mores, and conventions—but of the hero genre itself". "Potter's polite, socially correct narrative voice is revealed as a façade". Scott concludes her argument this way: Beatrix Potter's tale has laid a depth charge beneath the calm surface of a children's story. Her tale has been providing an explosive force for many generations of children encouraging them to self-indulgence, disobedience, transgression of social boundaries and ethics, and assertion of their wild, unpredictable nature against the constrictions of civilized living. Potter also implies that this battle will be a constant, cyclical one, for there is not closure to the story, just a temporary hiatus. Mr. McGregor's spoils of victory—Peter's clothes—are hollow, and transient; they do not empower McGregor, as the scarecrow picture reveals, and, as we see in the Benjamin Bunny sequel, Peter has already outgrown them. The struggle for personal independence will include moments of panic and terror, and real danger. But the subliminal message is that this struggle is what life is all about, and that the price one must pay—a stomachache and no supper—is well worth the exhilaration and self-realization that results from the confrontation.

Peter Rabbit: Word-Image Interaction

Scott begins by observing that in a picture book the words and the illustrations work together to tell the story and that this "interaction between verbal and visual perspective and point of view deepens the reader's involvement in and comprehension of the story." Scott points out that in the book the words and images are visually separate, yet because the illustrations are not framed, and because each illustration changes shape, it has "a sense of freedom on the page rather than a feeling of being fixed in one place or form." The continual "shift in perspective, scope of vision, and setting creates and fluctuating rather than a fixed viewpoint," and Scott argues, this is echoed in the "verbal text that involves changes in extent—from a few words to a full page—as well as in voice, diction, and approach" (21). All of this works to "subvert the formal separation between the picture page and the word page," which alerts us "to the restless interaction" between the "facing pages with their different modes of expression." So, she basically argues, we must pay attention to the relationships between the text and the illustrations on the facing pages of the book.

Peter Rabbit: Narrative voice

Scott discusses the narrative voice: - The narrative voice sometimes takes an adult judgmental tone [consistent with what we would expect in a cautionary tale] - However, it is usually distant, objective; contrasts with closeness & immediacy of pictures - There is the occasional "I," but it is also generally non-judgmental and objective Scott argues that because of this, the "narrative voice of the verbal text [is] ambiguous [in terms of its attitude towards Peter], but that the illustrations are clear" [they sympathize with him].

Anarchistic Cat

Seuss also sees The Cat in the Hat as anarchistic: "It's impractical the way anarchy is, but it works within the confines of a book." As Selma Lanes points out in her essay "Seuss for the Goose Is Seuss for the Gander" The anxiety in Seuss's books always arises from the flouting of authority, parental or societal. It is central to the Seuss formula that the action of all the books with children as protagonists takes place either (1) in the absence of grownups, or (2) in the imagination" (46). . . .Seuss's books are obsessed with having 'lots of fun." What Seuss means by fun, however, is the sort of thing which, if it took place in real life, would place an anxiety burden on most children impossible for them to bear. . . . [When] the Cat in the Hat says, 'We can have lots of good fun that is funny' (by which he really means fun that is forbidden), the child can sit back and experience genuine pleasure . . . no punishment will follow Seuss's forbidden pleasures."

Hansel & Gretel: Characters of Parents

Stepmom hateful, stronger personality - Stepmom and witch: verbally abusive, cruel, deceitful, unnatural - Witch-ugly, physically deformed, cannibal: physical mirrors the soul/self - Women in fairy tales often seem to be -- weak and good (dead mom in Snow White, Cinderella, etc.) or -- strong and bad (stepmother in Snow White, Cinderella, etc.) Dad loves children, but weak, ineffective against stronger wife - Men tend to be ineffective, weak, or absent in fairy tales - Note that the children live happily ever after ONLY with their father. Mother/witch is gone.

Faerie Tale Theatre's The Queen

The Mirror's description: - "Did not have the goodness" of Snow White's mother - "Mean, selfish, and very, very vain" This woman is revoltingly narcissistic! - Her opening monologue is nothing but her looking at the mirror and describing herself in ways that are just not normal! Cheekbones, high with gentle roundness; perfect face, exquisite lashes, eyelids "to send the strongest man into a fever" lips (soft), skin "could be satin" - Second monologue: neck, eyebrows, lack of wrinkles, lines, blemishes . . . (really??) - Third monologue: (queen carries two mirrors, looks into the third on the wall): soft hair that "touches my forehead, kisses my ears, whisps against my neck" Like the Disney queen, this one uses magic to physically change herself (the queen in the Grimms fairy tale does not). This does seem an odd thing for a woman who is so narcissistic to do to herself. The whole interlude with the prince when she forgets that she is disguised as an ugly old woman rather than being herself . . . this is either funny or just gross! At her judgement, the mirror says that she has "vanity unsurpassed and a soul of cruelty."

The Cat in the Hat: The Cat

The cat's lesson: how to have "fun that is funny." Cat promises his "tricks are not bad," but in the end, the narrator calls them "bad tricks." They are good only in the sense that they exhibit an uncommon propensity to create anarchy—in other words, the tricks are particularly proficient in their trickery. Note the evasion in this language, just because the tricks are not "bad" does not mean that they are "good," either appropriate for indoor play or well-performed (the cat performs them badly). His only good trick is producing the machine that cleans up the house.

Peter Rabbit: Relationship between the Illustrations and the Narrative Text Shifts throughout the Story

The perspective of the illustrations is on Peter's level: - Almost every picture features Peter close up and within touching distance, focusing on the small rabbit and helping us to identify with him. When Mr. McGregor appears, he is always on the far side of Peter; it is Peter's line of sight that we share. In essence, then, this causes us to identify with Peter; it causes us to sympathize with him.

Peter Rabbit: Or Not a Cautionary Tale?

This argument is condensed from Carole Scott's essay "An Unusual Hero: Perspective and Point of View in The Tale of Peter Rabbit." Scott begins her argument this way: Margaret Mackey, in The Case of Peter Rabbit, states that 'On the surface, she [Beatrix Potter] is clearly on the side of law and order. . . . But the detached tone with which Potter describes Peter's disobedience actually functions to raise the question of just whose side she is on.' . . . However . . . the sympathies of Potter, and thus the reader, are with Peter, despite, or perhaps even because of, his naughtiness, his flouting of the adults' received wisdom. . . . Although Peter disobeys his mother and causes her anxiety and grief, commits trespass and theft, and evades paternalistic authority symbolized by Mr. McGregor . . . nonetheless he escapes all punishment for his misdeeds, except for a temporary stomachache resulting from his greediness. . . . [T]here is little doubt that Peter, who stands for rebellion on all fronts, is the hero of the story. Scott argues that Potter uses specific techniques with "word-image interaction" to "manipulate" the reader to identify with Peter, and then she argues that he is an "unlikely hero."

Jack and the Beanstalk

This is a British tale; unique to England. - Replays conflict similar to that of Odysseus vs. Cyclops, David vs. Goliath: weak, but shrewd, Jack manages to defeat dim-witted ogre Jack not a model child and at first doesn't seem terribly bright! - Conventional wisdom says that fairy tale heroes are handsome, active, cunning - Jack is naïve, silly, guileless in beginning - Later in story (once in ogre's land) slips into role of trickster; seems to change character traits Many modern revisions of this tale paint Jack as a juvenile delinquent and give the ogre vengeance, or show him as a decent, badly treated bystander of sorts. - Does this perhaps say something about our judgment of Jack's behavior/morals? - Note, for instance, that when he steals the harp, she cries for her master; she clearly does not want to be stolen. Ogre: powerful cannibalistic father opposed to dead (powerless) father? - Like mother/witch in other tales?

McPhail's LRRH (picture book 1995)

This story is very much doctored for young readers: cannibalism, death, violence, sexual implications, punishment for breaking prohibition removed. So what remains? How do we read this Little Red? - the prohibition remains - the wolf temps LR to leave the path; he becomes a tempter - Grandmother not eaten; hides in closet - we have an explanation for why Red does not recognize the wolf in the bed (the curtain drawn around the bed) - this Red realizes her danger at the last minute and does not get into the bed, but crawls under it - Wolf gets stuck, Red jumps on bed calling for help (echo of trickster Red?) - everyone in forest, including the Grimms' woodcutter, comes to the rescue - wolf is not killed; runs away... as a matter of fact, seems to have left the neighborhood altogether!

Maria Tartar: LRRH ubiquitous in our own culture

Two Little Reds for two audiences, children and adults, telling us about "encounters between predator and prey" and about "human interactions that foreground innocence and seduction". It's a story about appetite of all kinds and its consequences. Little Red both naïve and innocent, seductive and deadly.

Faerie Tale Theatre's The Dwarfs (Relatives of Disney's Dwarfs)

Unlike Disney's dwarfs: house is clean, table already set for supper, just awaiting dwarfs' return. Ok, the search for the something in the house, IS Disney! Their first response to Snow White is to observe that she is "a lovely child," and there is the immediate assumption that because she is beautiful that she is a princess, and the ensuing argument about whether or not she is. Constant arguing Overacting!! Comic relief, of course, just as they are in Disney

Hansel's Eyes by Garth Nix

Urban gothic - Burned out, destroyed city - Twisted, dangerous PlayStation shop - Basement that is a subterranean chamber of horrors - Frankenstein cat: Lazarus -- Frankenstein a classic Gothic novel -- Lazarus the man Jesus raised from the dead after he had been in the tomb for 3 days -- Witch sees through his eyes This is about parents who hate their children, not about poverty and starvation. Why the change? Hagmom—conflation of witch and stepmother figure in traditional tale (Remember Tatar's argument about the conflation of these two figures.) Powerless father (doesn't love them). Note that the Hagmom has "hypnotized" him much as the witch will later do with Hansel Hansel just a boy . . . with beautiful blue eyes . . . but he changes He's also the idea man (supplies, map, liquid nitrogen idea) like his traditional counterpart He is the one who is susceptible to the witch's powers By the end, has "gained strange powers from his magic cat's-eye" Gretel has seeds of a witch - Gretel chooses to learn to be a witch - Enjoys her lessons - In danger of forgetting Hansel - Pre-meditated plan to kill the witch - By the end, "more than half a witch" - Place this in context with the Fractured Fairy Tales' "There's a little witch in all us girls" Modern witch - Bewitches Hansel with playstation spell - A spider - A horror who murders children to harvest their organs - Can't be killed by metal or blows - Spell to graft eye to her socket "must be fueled by your fear" - Bewitches Gretel with her own breath on Gretel's heart (This like the Snow Queen in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen") - Dies in freezer, not oven The children kill both of the witches in their lives - Gretel, aided by Hansel kills urban witch - Hansel kills Hagmom. - They have gained the ability to fight (destroy) stepmoms who don't love them, but have they also become less than human? - How do we feel about these changed children? - And what about the fact that the children have to kill the stepmother; she hasn't conveniently died while they have been gone?

The Young Slave: Beauty, Power, and Jealousy

We have the same issues that we do with Snow White, except that the whole beauty thing seems, in a lot of ways, to be of secondary importance to the issue of a woman's jealousy over who she believes to be her husband's mistress. Thus, while there is still a power struggle between the two women, it is over a misconception about her husband's faithfulness, not over jealousy over another woman's beauty. At stake, of course, is the power of a wife vs. the power of a mistress (whether real or imagined). The aunt is fighting for her marriage and sees Lisa as a threat. Her sin (as it were) seems to be more her loss of control, her cruelty, her unjustified jealousy (with no evidence to support it).

Ungerer: LRRH (1974)

again, satire wolf is redeemed in this version (made good guy) - nobleman (a la Beauty & the Beast?) - wolf given a bad reputation by society - apparently not accurate - offers to carry her baskets to his castle and promises to share secrets, treasures, clothes, furs, a library and a pool. All the things a rich, older man "with whiskers turning to silver" would offer a young "pink and soft" little girl, a "morsel of a maiden" to entice her to marry him. How do we read this?\ - rescues Red from her unhappy life; plays role of Prince Charming grandmother is the bad guy; what do we do with this reversal? - threat is from within the family (as opposed to outside in the woods), not only that, but from the female side - Red seems to be isolated from her family and from her society - something else going on here? Red, again, capable of taking care of self, but there is no need from this wolf - this is not the LRRH we might have read about; this is the real, no nonsense one - She is trespassing on wolf's land; does this imply anything about the traditional stories where Red is almost always accosted in the woods? Are the woods the wolf's domain? Does he have a right to behave as he does? Red and Wolf marry, happily ever after - So what about the sexual aspect of the story? No longer do we have rape or the threat thereof; we have rescue from abuse and sex happens within the confines of marriage and results in children! All very traditional and very acceptable. - Red leaves her family, her society, joins the animal wolf - Do we read this as an ironic comment on the nature of human beings? Something about them being the real animals while those we characterize as animals are noble? Or is this going entirely too far?

Dahl: 1982 LRRH & the Wolf

again, satire (as is the next piece), and oh, so funny! This is characteristic of Dahl. wolf and grandma seem to know the story (Can we read grandmother as symbolic of earlier "weak" Reds? Those that get eaten?) notice story begins with focus on wolf (entire 1st stanza) - much of the humor relies on the frustration of the wolf's perceptions ("'That's wrong!' cried the wolf. 'Have you forgot to tell me what BIG TEETH I've got?" this Red is the hero of her own story; needs no hunter... or do we read this more negatively? Has she hunted the wolf as much as the wolf hunts the little girl in the traditional tales? Do we admire this girl or are we a little uneasy about her?

Kate Greenaway

children's book illustrator - Pied Piper - Jack and Jill

Randolph Caldecott

children's book illustrator - A Frog he would a-wooing go - And the dish ran away with the spoon!

George Cruikshank

children's book illustrator - Oliver Twist - Jack and the Beanstalk

children's books come of age: New Realism

enter New Realism - (1963) Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (considered the first picture book that is a work of new realism) - (1964) Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy (considered the first novel that is a work of new realism) characteristics - "shockingly realistic" novels and picture books become the norm in children's publishing - show children realistically (as opposed to idealistically) - present taboo subjects (conflict with parents, death, broken families, sex, history books with unpopular viewpoints)

the *21st century*

in the *1990s* we begin to see the *emergence of fantasy and sci-fi*, especially *series books*, that will become the *dominant genres of the 21st century* - Harry Potter - Twilight - Percy Jackson - The Hunger Games *graphic novels* *"New Didacticism"*

didactic

intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive

Garner: Politically Correct LRRH

introduction gives us his agenda careful to paint Red in other than stereotypical role - reason for going to grandmother's - not afraid of forest; confident in her budding sexuality - reads wolf as product of his environment, not as evil - Red screams bc wolf invades her space, not bc of fear - berates would-be rescuer grandmother NOT sick, completely able to care for herself - jumps out of wolf not at Red's 1st scream, but at her screaming at woodchopper - chops off woodchopper's head in this version - the women take care of themselves - the wolf is simply product of his environment and misunderstood - the would-be rescuer is the bad guy (male, patriarchal, thinks women can't take care of themselves) in the end, all of the misunderstood, societally-imposed upon persons form an "alternate household"

trickster Reds

like "The Story of Grandmother," these tales give us a strong, clever Red

Hallett and Karasek: Introduction to LRRH

not a real wolf! - *bzou: werewolf* - for listeners/readers who are not small children, it is clear that these stories are not necessarily about wolves eating little girls, but about men taking advantage of women: rape

Thurber: 1940

satire wolf seems to already know the story - waiting for a little girl to come along... - asks if girl is going to grandmother's notice that the little girl is not named, identified, or described as LRRH - notice the little girl's behavior - goes no nearer than 25 ft. - immediately recognizes wolf not grandmother - narrator's comment: "Wolf does not look any more like your grandmother than the Metro-Goldwyn lion looks like Calvin Coolidge." moral takes us full circle: satirizes Perrault and Grimms' versions of the tales; this Red more like her oral tradition ancestors; stronger than early literary versions

early books: *didacticism*

the *Middle Ages to the 17th century* characteristics of didactic literature - books are designed not just to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, but to teach social values and behavior - the attitude is that children should learn to act like adults, to take on adult responsibilities - children are seen as deficient adults who need all the help they can get

children's books come of age: *19th century*

the *nineteenth century* is often considered the *first great age of children's books* there is a shift as we see the *first books written specifically to entertain*... but the *moral lesson is almost always included* *rise of the folktale and literary fairy tale* - *Perrault* remains immensely popular - *The Grimms* publish their ~Household Tales~ - *Hans Christian Andersen* *verse becomes entertaining* - Edward Lear - Robert Louis Stevenson the *fantasy novel is born* - Lewis Carroll's ~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland~. A hallmark because it is nonsense, intended entirely to entertain; no didacticism at all! - George MacDonald Louisa May Alcott's ~Little Women~: first novel written specifically for young adult female readers, White is is in most ways conventional, the protagonist, Jo, is the first female protagonist who begins to break the stereotypical female mold. Children's magazines are born Some of the best illustrators of the 19th century were illustrators of children's books

children's books come of age: 1950 - present

through the 1950s, realistic fiction tends to be optimistic, portraying attractive, smart, carefree, and successful, usually white, children with stable home lives. The literature reflects "the basic decency and restrained good fun that most adults expected" - traditional families - obedient, happy children - strict social rules for males and females - traditional values regarding sex, marriage, divorce, gender roles, etc.

chapbooks examples

~Jack the Giant Killer~ ~The Children in the Wood~