Hey, I was thinking of working on children's book in India. Through these books I would like to do a cultural study of India-as they reflect a child's world as he himself sees it- beyond the adult community . The books I have in mind are Narayan's 'Swami and friends', Deshpande's '3 novels'.
Please suggest and comment.
Please suggest and comment.
the question is interestingly paradoxical -- both the novelists were adults when they wrote the novels and yet you see them as reflecting a child's point of view "beyond the adult community". Do the writers actually use the child's point of view to critique the adult world? Do they use it for other purposes? Why look at books that were published so far apart? Lots of questions you too may want to raise and look at.
ReplyDeleteA great starting point for criticism/theory of children's literature, by the way, is the Introduction in Jacqueline Rose's "The Case of Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction". She raises several of the issues sir mentions in the above comment. Also read anything by Peter Hunt, particularly "The International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature" which is a fantastic, comprehensive book, giving one overviews on a variety of sub-genres within kid lit. If anyone wants books on kid lit, mail me, I have some.
ReplyDeletePs--FYI guys and girls, I'm dropping out of the course because my hands are too full with work this semester, but I'll still be managing the blog and commenting occasionally.
hey, i think since you are dropping out of the course, it would be better that someone who is part of the course handle the blog. that would relieve you of taking on this extra work as you are already overburdened :)
DeleteAfter the class discussion,I have narrowed down my topic to South Asian Immigrant Writing.
ReplyDeleteThrough the paper, I would establish the diasporic nature of South Asian immigrant writing. The authors I will be using for this are Jhumpa Lahiri and Hanif Kureishi.
Through their short stories, biograpical details and critical writing (For instance, Something New by Hanif Kureishi, which is an overview on writing itself) and interviews I would interrogate -
i.The nature of this diaspora - does it arise from the love of nation or from the need to perhaps identify oneself as a part of a place/ nation in the imagination? Does it exist or is more of a construct?
ii.The similarity in immigrant writing, not merely confined to India/Indian authors but extending to other nations /authors of the South-Asia.
I might extend the paper to European or Other immigrant writing, which could be an inter-continental comparison.. Thinking about it!
@ Keats: I shall not cease (at midnight or otherwise) to manage the blog since it is a trifling task that gives me no pain. Having designed this blog, (that collage of pics took a jolly long time to make!) I've developed something of a maternal affection for it, and I will occasionally drop in with some observations, if the class doesn't mind. I have spoken to professor Prasad on the matter and he has consented.
ReplyDeleteApologies for the delay in contributing.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend
Cullingford, Cedric. Children's Literature and its Effects - The Formative Years, London: Cassell, 1998.
Hunt, Peter. International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. 2nd ed. London. Routledge-Taylor & Francis, 2004.
Hunt, Peter. Understanding Children's Literature. 1999. 2nd ed. London. Routledge-Taylor & Francis, 2005.
All three are available online and can be downloaded from library.nu for free.
I found them extremely helpful on the subject of children's literature as a genre. You will find many commentaries that talk about the problematic issue of the adult attempting to speak For the child or TO the child through the character of another child.
manipulative means are certainly adopted by most writers since the Concept of writing For children may be said to be operating under the agenda of Teaching the child. but how far they are successful in their attempt is open for discussion :)
library.nu is dead, guys. Sorry. It's a tragedy. At first there was a way to still access it, through gigapedia.info, iff you already had an account. But now they've started deleting accounts altogether.
ReplyDeleteAny recommendations on other (free) sources of books online?