As many of you know, I work at a childcare center. As the morning lead teacher, I have breakfast every morning with a little group of ten toddlers, and then we hang out and play/read/dance, and I go to class. It's great. One of my favorite activities is story time. Children's books are full of cute illustrations, tiny animals, and stories of triumph. However, the dark underbelly of children's books does exist. I found this book on bookshelf recently (the head of the center switches them out periodically), and I felt very, very uncomfortable. Here's why:
1. Africa is a very big continent. This "snapshot" of Africa is incredibly generalizing, and ignores literally all cultural and ethnic nuance. Huts, tribal print, undeveloped roads....not good.
2. This book basically sums up Allen's argument against the imposing of Westernized narratives upon tribal cultures. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" originated in the nineteenth century as an English nursery tale. Though the first two stanzas of the rhyme are the most popular in contemporary culture, the end goes:
And so the teacher turned it out,
But still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about,
Till Mary did appear.
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry.
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The teacher did reply.
And waited patiently about,
Till Mary did appear.
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?"
The eager children cry.
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know."
The teacher did reply.
The rhyme follows a traditional narrative structure. Mary loves her lamb, it follows her everywhere, it goes to school, conflict ensues with the lamb's expulsion, and is quickly resolved through the lamb's loyalty (a result of Mary's unfailing love.) Mary is the hero, the teacher is the villain (though she redeems herself through acknowledging Mary's good qualities at the end.) While this structure is not bad in of itself, it completely eclipses the tribal stories that go untold, and is culturally pretentious in it's unapologetic transference of narrative to a more "diverse" context, without considering the implications.
3. Part of my discomfort also stems from the reality that this book's audience is children. The specific genre seems to exist almost purely in generalization, in cultural assumption, and it makes me question whether that is developmentally appropriate (toddlers can't understand complicated narrative theory and cultural sensitivity) or way out of line.
Is this generalization and imposing of narrativity acceptable in the context of a children's book? Is there even a way to approach this issue at the level of a beginning reader? Is there a creative and intentional way to write a nuanced children's book?
On the one hand, I doubt that the people who published this book were entirely schooled in Postcolonial and cultural theory. Thus, the imposed narrative here seems like more of a way to teach children about how others are not radically different (though it's done in a very inappropriate way).
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I don't think the book is acceptable. The problem we run into, then, is how to teach American children about cultures in a way they'll understand. Does this mean publishing more books that promote cultural diversity and rich storytelling? Of course! How do we go about doing that? No idea.
What I so enjoy about Allen's essay is that she exposes the unintentional biases we bring to narratives that differ from our own. Can use this concept as a foundation for future action? Yes, but there are caveats. From what it seems that Allen is arguing, there is no way to completely bridge the gap that exists between cultures and their stories. Yet, we can teach people about other cultures while being mindful of our own. Perhaps this is the route that must be taken.
We think that children as more unsophisticated than we are, and that we need to "generalize" the world in order to explain it to them. I think that's crazy. Allen is right--that our attempts to generalize are silly and often wrong.
ReplyDeleteI babysit a sweet two-year-old, Hazel. This week she had a new bag of library books, and as we were reading through them, I pulled out a book called "Papa, Do You Love Me?" As soon as I saw the cover, I recognized the people as Maasai from Kenya; my brother-in-law is Maasai. The book is about a boy asking his dad how much he loves him, and the dad responds/interacts in cultural ways unique to Maasai ("I love you as much as the warrior loves to leap, as long as the Serenget rolls to the sky...") The back pages contain a description of terms/customs. It was an awesome book! But I had trouble helping Hazel understand the story because of nuance.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, the author is Barbara Joosse...very much American. She also wrote a book called "Mama, Do You Love Me?" which focuses on Alaskan Natives/Eskimos/First Nation people.
I think these books succeed at nuance. By focusing on one particular tribe/culture they allow children to appreciate other cultures without the cultures being generalized.
Elizabeth, that's great. It is comforting to know that there are some more complicated children's books out there. I wonder if that structure still imposes a narrative structure on the Maasai (I don't know much about their culture, so this could be overcomplicating the issue)? Either way, it's a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThose books, Elizabeth, do sound good. Certainly a huge step forward from "Mary had a little lamb." I like your point about speaking from within one culture as a way to introduce the concept that there are many diverse ways of living and seeing the world. I wonder if a further step might be to look, not just to books by Americans looking at the world through other cultural lenses, but to books written from within various cultures (e.g. by a Native Alaskan, etc.).
ReplyDelete