Every Missing Piece (original) (raw)
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Re-discovery of Indias: Contemporary Writing for Children
De-territorializing Diversities: Literatures of the Indigenous and the Marginalised. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2014. pp. 170-186.
Growing up in an India where English children’s fiction usually exhibited a marked colonial bias, it was a pleasant surprise when, while sourcing books for my daughters, I came across many new Indian publishers who are bringing out English/bi-lingual books for children which engage with Indian folklore, folk art forms, histories, geographies and multi-cultures in innovative ways that appeal to both children and adults. These narratives explore the pluralities of post-colonial India: city/village, folk/urban, myth/science, forest/highrise, tradition/education, and many others. Publishing houses like Katha (New Delhi, founded in 1989), Tara (Chennai, founded in 1994), Tulika (Chennai, founded in 1996) and Pratham (Bangalore, founded in 2004) are re-imagining marginalised communities and endangered cultures through their carefully-crafted books which are collaborative exchanges among writers, illustrators and translators. By treating literature as a synthesis of languages, story-telling and visuals, these books open up multiple old/new Indias to the curious reader. This is a laudable and brave attempt, especially if we consider the marketing muscle of multinational publishing houses like Puffin and Scholastic, who have de-territorialised indigenous oral and art traditions for children and re-territorialised children’s fiction (especially in urban India) as part of a superimposing ‘Westernised’ narrative. While it may be argued that these books commoditise indigenous cultures and look at marginalised identities from a rose-tinted, superficial perspective, it cannot be denied that these publishing houses are making valuable contributions in managing diversities: by sensitising their target audiences (especially urban children) to ‘other’ voices and identities, by preserving cultural memories, by opening up spaces for cultural transfers, by giving employment opportunities to folk artists and narrators, and by sustaining indigenous oral literatures and art-forms from erasure and extinction.
Children’s literature plays a significant role in their growth and development, and the shaping of their value system. India boasts of one of the oldest and richest traditions of children’s literature – be it the Panchatantra or the Jataka Tales or the Hitopadesa, not to mention the two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. These stories have been told and retold, written, reinterpreted and rewritten by generations of Indian story tellers. For years, Amar Chitra Katha popularized stories from Indian mythology through comic books. The other major genre that dominated Indian writing for children was moral stories. Each story was a lesson in ethics, and had a clear objective in mind. It ended with an overt and direct message that it wanted to convey to children to inculcate values of honesty, hard work, loyalty and righteousness. With lack of interesting reading material from India, Indian children turned to foreign authors like Enid Blyton for creating a fairy tale world of magic and fascinating boarding schools. The Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Sherlock Holmes series quenched the thirst for mystery and adventure. The books transported children to a world very different from their own – one that they could enjoy but never identify with, because such books presented them with a culture that was a stark contrast to their own. The last few decades, however, have witnessed an experimentation with numerous contemporary themes, and an advent of publishers exclusively focusing on children’s books. It is ironic, because this is an age of digitization, and ostensibly that of decline in the reading habits of children which are gradually being replaced by gadgets like phones and tablets. Despite the threat from technology, there is a conscious movement to inculcate reading among children, creating for them a world that is fantastic, and yet often close to reality. This paper focuses on some of the lesser known books in Indian English writing for children, and explores new and contemporary themes that convey important lessons, but yet in a subtle and indirect manner. In some cases, the characters are children, but in other books, they are animals. Human qualities are projected on to animals, which ensures that the message is understated and restrained. Why are you Afraid to Hold my Hand by Sheila Dhir, published by Tulika books, deals with attitudes of people to children with disabilities, and the emotions of a disabled child who just wants to be accepted and not treated with sympathy. The Mouse with Seven Tails by Bapsi Sidhwa published by Pratham Books talks about peer pressure and the need for acceptance by one’s peers which often leads an individual to change his or her own personality in order to conform. Samaira’s Awful Lunch by Bharati Jagannathan, published again by Pratham Books, centres on the need to value, appreciate and respect the food we have been given. Vishv Books’ My Nose is Ugly by Bina Kapoor stresses the unique features of each individual, which make him or her distinct from others. It also deals with the concept of self-image and self-confidence. Another book by the same publication, Ma, Can I Help by Girija Rani Asthana, breaks gender stereotypes by projecting gender role equality within a family, where each member, regardless of sex, helps with the household chores. Fun Ok Please’s book Brown Like Dosas, Samosas and Sticky Chikky by Rebecca Manari, is a beautifully told story which challenges the Indian obsession with fair complexion, and defies the notion that fair is beautiful. The paper finally examines a short story entitled ‘The Missing Suitcase’ from my book Peek A Boo Manya, published by Omji Publication House. The story deals with valuing relationships over materialistic objects. Through an analysis of various books, the paper provides a comprehensive understanding of Indian children’s literature in English today. While publishers, authors and illustrators are working together to create meaningful books for children, the genre of children’s literature is still sadly not accorded the importance it deserves. Considering the fact that children’s literature lays the foundation for the thought process of an entire generation, the miniscule media coverage and critical thinking on children’s literature is indeed deplorable. More experts in the field need to come together to revolutionize the movement and spread awareness of the importance, need and variety of Indian children’s literature in the market today.
Theme issue "Radical Children’s Literature"
Barnboken, 2019
“Radical Children’s Literature” is a special issue that investigates children’s literature that in some way – in content, message or form – challenges norms and conventions both within children’s literature and outside it. Six contributions from a conference in this topic at Stockholm University in 2018 are gathered in this joint special issue with articles by Philip Nel, Julia Mickenberg, Sara Pankenier Weld, Nina Christensen, Elina Druker, Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer and Jörg Meibauer.
An Indian Perspective on Localized Content for Children in a Globalized World
2020
An interesting example of 'liminality' is offered by Eva Szekely's article on the modernist Elizabeth Bowen and her possibly best novel, 'The Heat of the Day'. Interesting in the sense that the liminality of her own Irish-British identity is somehow translated both into the liminal space that is London during the war and, at the level of characters, into 'liminal relationships and behaviour'. War and its aftermath are also present in the correspondence between Lawrence Durrel and Patrick Leigh Fermor. Dan H. Popescu lifts 'cookbook' turns into a narrative with unexpected revelations. In her article, however, the author focuses primarily on 'French culture, food and places, and on the narrator's 'comparative criticism of British mores'. Last but not least, Saukayna Alami revisits the immensely popular Victorian novel Lady Audley's Secretand looks at the representation of madness in relation to class and gender. Further, she demonstrates how, in this patriarchal society,'transgressive acts are translated to insanity and vice versa'. Revisiting the past, reading the present is at stake in two of the articles in the American Literature section. Ioana Cistelecan sees the American West both as a timeless Arcadia and as a surrogate for a usable past, a foundational myth in a country with an excess of geography and a shortage of history. The writers under consideration in her article undermine 'the traditional paradigm of the Western short story' by focusing on 'marginal heroes and thus adding a 'psychological dimension' to the 'ritualistic confrontations between good and evil'. Teodor Mateoc writes about Raymond Carver's stark, minimalist stories and argues that beyond their blunt realism they do allow for a metaphorical meaning and illuminate human emotions released mostly in limit situations or moments of crisis. In form, these stories illustrate the idea that less is more; in content, love as the arch emotion is here replaced by its contraries: confusion, falsity, betrayal, hatred and violence. Starting from the triad author-text-reader, Sangjun Jeong looks at several critical stances that have considered the issue of 'textual objectivity', from the New Criticism to the reader-response school. The variety of critical interpretations and the 'the multiple responses to the same text on the part of the reader' leads him to the conclusion that, in the long run, 'interpretive anarchy cannot be avoided'. As usual, the Cultural and Gender Sudiesis the most substantial section. The topics of the article bear witness to their authors diverse interests: childhood, religion, feminism, advertising, politics or book marketing. Andrada Marinau's article takes us back, to the Middle Ages, and the dark times of witchcraft. She intends to look at 'how witchcraft was viewed and dealt with in medieval England' and, by foregrounding the
Interpreting New Literary Texts: Things Fall Apart, A House for Mr. Biswas and Midnight's Children
After the end of the Empire during the 1940s/1950s, the mainstream English literature lost its glory and therefore needed revitalization. The demise of the Empire helped in quickening expansion and revitalization of mainstream English literature because of emergence of a number of new literatures across the globe. Postcolonialism is instrumental in the emergence of new literatures. We will therefore discuss its conceptualization. Both thematic and aesthetic features in new literatures in reference to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas, and Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children will also be examined. The paper will conclude with the argument that "New Literatures in English" have enriched the mainstream English literature in revitalizing and expanding it.