The Widening World of Children’s Literature

212 Pages·2000·0.812 MB·English

by  Susan Ang (auth.)

The Widening World of
Children's Literature
Susan Ang
The Widening World of Children’s Literature
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The Widening World of
Children’s Literature
Susan Ang
Lecturer
Department of English Language and Literature
National University of Singapore
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-40092-8 ISBN 978-0-230-37848-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230378483
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-22668-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ang, Susan, 1965–
The widening world of children’s literature / Susan Ang.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-22668-8
1. Children’s literature, English—History and criticism.
2. Children—Books and reading. I. Title.
PR990.A84 1999
820.9'9282—dc21 99–16692
CIP
©Susan Ang 2000
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-68784-0
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written
permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright
Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P0LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained
forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
To
Professor and Mrs Ang How Ghee
v
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 The Imprisoning Image 20
2 An Ordered Universe 50
3 Of Rabbit-Holes and Secret Gardens 99
4 ‘Shivering in the Midst of Chaos’ 137
Conclusion (Contradiction) 165
Notes 169
Bibliography 185
Index 196
vii
Acknowledgements
I am mindful of the fact that an acknowledgements page should
beware of falling into hyperbole. There are, however, debts which
must be acknowledged, people and institutions without whom this
book could neither have been written nor revised who deserve more
than a perfunctory thanks.
Among these are my supervisor, Professor John Beer, whose kind-
ness, patience and helpfulness have been unfailing, and Mr Victor
Watson, who has, over many years, unstintingly put his great wealth
of knowledge of the field of children’s literature at my disposal, and
for whose encouragement I shall always be grateful. Both are remem-
bered here with immense gratitude and affection. I also owe a great
deal to, and wish to thank very warmly, my editor, Charmian Hearne,
for her phenomenal patience and understanding over the time it took
to get the script in, and helpfulness in all matters pertaining to the
work. I am grateful to Associate Professor Ban Kah Choon, Head of the
Department of English Language and Literature at the National
University of Singapore, whose general support and generosity over
matters of leave allowed me to work on the revisions; Dr Terence
Dawson for his advice and help over matters of publishing procedure;
Downing College, Cambridge (and especially Mr John Hopkins, Dr
Martin Mays and Dr Catherine Phillips) for the Visiting Scholarship
which allowed me to put the finishing touches to this work; St John’s
College, Cambridge, which also kindly provided me with accommo-
dation during the period of revision, and Mr Richard Nolan, who
made this possible, and who has, over the years, encouraged and
nagged, according to need.
I also wish to express heartfelt thanks to Ms Kate Agnew, Mr Gwee
Li Sui, Ms Venessa Lee, Mr Warren Liew, Mr Gilbert Ng and Mr
Augustine Wong, who proofread, commented, and did so much else,
and whose friendship has had its own importance to this work. To my
parents, Professor and Mrs Ang How Ghee, however, there is a less
specific but more all-encompassing debt of gratitude owed, and it is to
them that this work is dedicated.
viii
Introduction
Over the last 200 years or so of its history, children’s literature has
altered considerably in terms of its governing ethos, and this alter-
ation may be understood in terms of shifts between principles of
constraint and emancipation, repression and expression. This study is
an attempt to trace the removal of constraints surrounding the child
and his book from the eighteenth century to the present, to map the
movement from the state of ‘enclosure’, where external shaping,
defining, and constraint are active forces, to one of ‘openness’, where
these forces have ceased to be dominant. It is also an enquiry into how
these factors affect ‘being’ and the formation of self, how the concept
of being has changed in its formulation and how these changes might
best be comprehended.
In our century – and especially in the context of western culture –
the notion of ‘enclosure’ tends, by and large, to be viewed suspi-
ciously, being freighted with ideas of repression, constraint and
imprisonment. ‘Freedom’, on the other hand, carries with it an almost
unqualified approval. Each of the two terms, however, runs through a
spectrum of meanings and intentions, and it is necessary not only to
trace the history of the negotiation between the two, but also of the
fluctuations along each spectrum of meanings. As Gaston Bachelard,
in The Poetics of Space(1958), writes:
Outside and inside form a dialectic of division, the obvious geom-
etry of which blinds us as soon as we bring it into play in
metaphorical domains. It has the sharpness of the dialectics of yes
and no, which decides everything. Unless one is careful, it is made
into a basis of images that govern all thoughts of positive and nega-
tive.... Formal opposition is incapable of remaining calm.1
1