| Shonentachi
no America : Shishunki Bungaku no Teikoku to 'Otoko' Kyoto, Japan: Aunsha, 2004 Review by Ariko Kawabata, Aichi Prefectural University, Japan This is the first book which illustrates the historical changes and the cultural significance of American adolescent literature, focusing on the construction of masculine identities of boy-heroes. It covers almost 100 years from the end of the nineteenth to contemporary times, exploring how adolescent literature has served to construct American masculine identity, and indoctrinated ideologies of American Empire such as Isolationism, Globalism and Americanism into the minds of American boys. However, adolescent literature includes some counter-narratives, which challenge and protest against the established norms and we can find a considerable number of boy heroes who resist being incorporated into the dominant ideologies. Quoting Althusser, the author identifies adolescent literature as one of the AIE (Appareils Ideologiques d'Etat). As such, it has educated and socialized boys into becoming societally desirable American men. However, underneath the main narratives, some hidden subtexts continue to run, which disclose anxieties, fears, identity-crisis, and finally, disruption of the traditional American Masculine ideal. The author shows us the dynamics of these contesting currents within which boy-heroes live and grow up, and we can notice one clear trajectory of American social history through the analysis of the texts. It is also important that this book explores the history of silenced Others in terms of ethnic, gender, and class, as well as that of white American Men. In this sense, the first chapter on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) is interesting, for the author's interpretation shows us a double twist. We usually tend to read the story as Dorothy's quest for self-identity but here the author dislocates the main plot and focuses on the men around Dorothy: the Scarecrow, the Woodcutter, the Lion and the Wizard of Oz. These male characters embody, according to the author, vague fears and anxieties of American masculine identity. Although at that time, the United States was driving its way to establish itself as a powerful WASP Empire expunging the Others under the flag of "the Manifest Destiny", those fears and anxieties were already lurking beneath. The uneasy men of Oz are waiting for restoration and redemption at the hand of an innocent and hopeful girl. Seen from the socio-historical context, Dorothy's femininity is exploited and she is reduced to being the Other, rather than a protagonist, and her role in this male narrative is only to help restore the identity of American masculinity. Thus,
Oz is analyzed as men's narrative rather than a girl's,
and the American masculine identity continued to form
itself while marginalizing its Others. The author points
out that a typical example of such American masculine
identity is found in Tarzan of the Apes (1914). With
his noble savagery, Tarzan exemplifies the ideal American
man, domesticating wilderness as well as the feminine
Others. The author continues to discuss The Chocolate War (1974), The Earthsea Quintet (1968-2001), I am the Cheese (1977), and Park's Quest (1989) in the following chapters, which clearly demonstrate how American Masculine identity, which once set to establish itself as a pure WASP maleness, tries to reconcile itself with the feminine and the ethnic Others. Its struggling processes, in which the single manly ideal absorbs attributes of the Others and changes itself into plural masculinities, are inscribed in these texts. It is not an accident that some of these stories share the Holy Grail myth as a motif, for, as the author suggests, the recovery of the Holy Grail and the healing of the Wounded King require the hero's reconciliation with the Feminine. The author locates Park's Quest, the most explicit revision of the Holy Grail Quest as a new establishment of American masculinity, which is healed of its wounds inflicted by the Vietnamese War. She argues that the injured masculinity is restored here by the act of Park's reconciliation with an Asian Woman, the ethnic and the gender Other. We cannot help thinking how far American masculinity has come, from Frank Baum's Oz to Catherine Paterson's quest. At the same time, however, I am inclined to doubt just how far, and how many differences can there be between the role of Dorothy and that of Vietnamese Thanh. The last complete analysis in this book is of Fallen Angels (1988), in which the main protagonist who sets out to seek for his self-identity is a poor black boy, Richie. With the former ethnic Other being a main character, the traditional American male narrative is here deconstructed. The author insists that the new masculine identity of Richie is performatively achieved by absorbing those "feminine" attributes such as nurturance, comfort, and interdependence. It is hoped that this new self finally conquers the old sterile masculine system to make a better world. As the author herself recognizes in the afterword, however, the old American masculine ideal has not collapsed altogether. Rather, it seems to recover its power and strengthen itself during the era from the Gulf War to the more recent Iraqi War. Still, literary discourse can imply a counter narrative within itself, or can be interpreted as a counter message, however it is forced to serve as an AIE system. After reading this book, what encourages us most is the author's assuring belief in the existence of such subversive power inherent in literature. The chapters in the book treat American adolescent novels alone, contextualizing them against modern American social history. Similar narratives are, however, found in other nations such as England and Japan and other developed countries. By applying and comparing, we can extend Yoshida's achievement in the book to the further understanding of children's literature, its subversive power and the danger of it becoming a tool of AIE. The book is written in Japanese, and those who can understand the language have the whole privilege to read this book from cover to cover. You need not, however, be disappointed, if you can read only English: some of the chapters originally appeared as separate articles in English language publications. Chapter 4. on Cormier's The Chocolate War, was from Children's Literature 26, part of chapter 5. on the Earthsea Quartet, was from The Presence of the Past in Children's Literature, chapter 6. on Cormier's I am the Cheese, from Tinker Bell 49, chapter 7. on Park's Quest, from Bridges for the Young, and the last chapter on Myers's Fallen Angels is from Tinker Bell 47. Except the last article, these English versions are available from Yoshida's homepage: http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~zz9j-ysd/listofbooks.html Bibliography Ariko Kawabata |