| Children's
Literature and Childhood in Performance
NCRCL papers 9. Pied Piper 2003 ISBN? 155pp. and Childhood
Remembered
NCRCL papers 3. Pied Piper 1997 and 2003 ISBN? 168pp
The theme of the 9th conference being Childhood in Performance, the editor's introduction dwells on the diverse understandings, which the concept 'performance' evokes. The different essays discuss children performing as well as adults performing with and as children. Children's literature as childhood performed is a key issue, and the interesting introduction puts the finger on our current understanding of childhood in late modernity. Not only is the genre of conference proceedings problematic but this also applies to the genre of conference papers and contributions. Like in the short story, there is little room for contemplating and discussing pros and cons about the thesis put forward. Many of the conference papers argue well for their case, but the emphasis is more on description and argument than on discussion and questioning. The editor's introduction gives us an up to date discussion of the current scene in childhood studies. I would claim that this introduction is one of the most interesting pieces on the subject that I have read recently. The two competing images of the child as knowing or the child as innocent are connected with the most important contributions to the conference. The research by the art historian Anne Higonnet, by the theorist Henry Giroux and by Jack Zipes are also related to these two images of childhood. According to Reynolds such issues as the loss of traditional childhood, the victimisation of children, demonisation of children and the commercialisation of childhood are reflected in the papers, although they are rarely the issues of children's literature. Being in the field of childhood studies myself, I have for quite some time been astonished by the prevailing ignorance among critics and scholars of children's literature of e.g. the new sociology of childhood, or the new anthropology of childhood or for that matter recent discoveries in the field of child psychology, psycho therapy and psychoanalysis. It sometimes seems that scholars in the field of children's literature keep themselves to themselves in seclusion, unaware of the current changes in childhood studies. However, I find both Peter Hollindale's study of "Performing the Lord of the Flies" and Laura Atkins' study of the "Creepy Kids" very relevant and interesting to read although Lacan might be more useful as a reference than Freud in the early 21st century. Another issue is the lack of theory and theoretical discussion in the different papers, possibly due to the restricted time at the conference. More often than not do the contributors to this conference refer to primary sources in abundance and merely a few secondary sources such as previous research supporting their argumentation. One exception is the most interesting article by Rosemary Johnston referring to Bakhtin, Butler, Derrida, Ricoeur and Lyotard. However, this is not just a case of name-dropping but rather a case of anchoring research on children's literature in the current discourse on performance, language and identity. Johnston points out the ethics of children's literature as performance, for writers, teachers and researchers as artists, whose practices, performance, are acts of power. A large part of the volume deals with the issue of adapting children's text for the stage or the screen and two more articles deal with story telling as performance. I am not familiar with the genre "writers writing about their own work" but I have a feeling that these papers do not do justice to the live performance of the conference. In the case of the second volume from the 4th Conference, I believe that the reason for a renewed publication of the proceedings must be a general and widespread demand for the papers presented at this conference. However, we have to be reminded of the fact that the issues and the perspectives of research have changed since these papers were presented at the event in question. It is also interesting to notice the development of Kimberley Reynolds's introductions between the two volumes of conference papers. There is no reason to believe that the 2nd edition of the 4th conference contains a newly written introduction, which might have been interesting in a retrospective way, and it serves only as a brief summary of what we can expect from the proceedings. Not less than 16 papers - only four participants were unable to contribute to the conference volume - show the diversity and the scope of the topic "Childhood remembered". Then what are the concepts of childhood that are (to be) remembered? The first section contains papers with an historical approach. The history covers children's literature from the middle ages to the 1940's. The second part contains three critical papers and the third the paper contributions from Adele Geras and Mary Hoffman. The concluding section presents an international outlook. Of the critical papers I was most impressed by Christine Wilkie's paper on "The Garden, the Wolf and the Dream of childhood." With a point of departure in Fredric Jameson's writings on post (or late) modernity, she sets out to compare two books and in this comparison discusses changes in topology and style, although "the image of childhood represented is still one of humanist, Romantic sensibility". Could it be otherwise in a children's novel? In reading the two volumes of conference proceedings I find myself listening to a multiplicity of voices, a polyphony of diversity, and of many interesting discussions and on-going talks I wish I had participated in. As a distant audience I can only enjoy myself and recognize the speech of people I wish were my friends and colleagues. This is an experience I thoroughly appreciate, a sense of having been there but still not in the middle of it but rather as an aftermath having been able to reflect on and reconsider the arguments put forward. It is a sense of distance as well as presence, which in my opinion is how conference proceedings should function. On the whole, I find the two volumes valuable for academic teaching as well as providing an interesting introduction into the issues of childhood in performance and childhood remembered and I wish to compliment the University of Roehampton and Pied Piper Publishing on both publications. Review
by Maj Asplund Carlsson, |