AustLit
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Notes
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Contents indexed selectively.
Contents
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Editorial Comments,
single work
column
(p. 3-4)Bradford gives a short, concise discussion regarding the theme for this edition of Papers, which focuses on reality, realism and censorship in children's literature. She articulates three assumptions related to realistic fiction for young readers; that 'reality' carries universal meanings available to all observers and participants; that 'reality' can be directly 'depicted' or 'conveyed' through narrative; and realist fiction is seen to provide young readers with insights which they 'need to' or 'should' face squarely so as to understand 'real life or 'life as it is' (4). Bradford points to the conflation of fantasy and reality as polarised opposites with notions about 'reality and the real world' arguing that this results in a 'simplistic identification of realism with reality and fantasy with escapism', a practice that is inherently dangerous, particularly in texts which 'work to control the ways in which they are read' (4).
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The Picture Book 'Kojuro and the Bears' : A Cross-Cultural Comparison with 'The Bears of Mount Nametoko (Nametoko Yama no Kuma)',
single work
criticism
(p. 16-30)
Kilpatrick explores the notion that 'different cultural and narratological differences can affect the significances arising out of the texts' (16), through an examination of Miyazawa Kenji's Nametoko Yama no Kuma, the Morimoto/Smith adaptation Kojuro and the Bears (Australian CBC Picture Book of the Year 1987), and the unillustrated original narrative. In a cross-cultural comparison, Kilpatrick argues that the westernised adaptations 'signify an unfamiliar message of interaction between nature and life to an audience acculturated by more anthropocentric traditions' (16).
Buddhism is intrinsic to Kenji's narratives and Kilpatrick sees a disparity between the central Buddhist tenet regarding the 'equality and ultimate oneness of all beings and objects in the phenomenal world' and the anthropocentric western perspective that privileges humans over animals and nature, in a hierarchy that is fixed and naturalised (17). The contrast shows how culture and 'discoursal strategies' affect intepretation through methods of representation and how certain significations 'foster and provoke [a] more intense contemplation of life' (25).
However, Kilpatrick highlights how the western adaptations are encoded with a more humanistic, ecological ideology, which, she argues, shows that, fundamentally, 'different notions about death and the cosmos make it difficult to avoid acculturated beliefs' (25).
Note: Includes illustrations from the picture books under discussion in the article. -
Gender, Realism and Power in 'The House That Was Eureka',
single work
criticism
(p. 31-38)McPherson gives an anlaysis of gendered subjectivity in Nadia Wheatley's The House That Was Eureka and considers whether or not the novel challenges dominant patriarchal discourses by looking at its representational functions and the 'effects of fantasy and realism' on its textual constructions (31). The text is concerned with 'the inequalities of class, wealth and power' and attempts to address issues of gender stereotyping and the construction of gendered behaviour through the depiction of events during the Great Drepression. McPherson posits that while Wheatley challenges many gender sterotypes using realist and fantasy narrative techniques, ultimately the novel condones masculine intervention, domination and violence (38).
