Post-colonial Literature for Children – EDU32PLC
Week 8 Lecture 15
Chinese Cinderella and
Criteria for Judging
Post-colonial
Literature
© La Trobe University,
David Beagley, 2006
Criteria for judging literature
Why?
• All analysis is judgement. By interpreting and
placing into our personal frames of reference, we
choose, accept, reject, edit, measure and judge.
What criteria?
• Depends what you are doing with your judgement:
 Review and recommendation
 Argument to establish belief
 Personal aesthetic experience
Criteria for judging literature
Schemes of interpretation: structures and frameworks
around which we analyse an item or idea
Example - Four Approaches for Traditional Literature:
• Psychological - dealing with the personality, emotions
and identity of an individual
• Structural - how the techniques of literary creation
shape the reader’s response
• Sociological - what can be understood of our own
society from the elements and features of the story
• Archetypal - the cues and clues that keep recurring
here, there and everywhere
Criteria for judging
post-colonial literature
Post-colonial literature is defined by:
• Its political focus
• Its relation to current and past society
• Its literary presentation
Therefore, criteria could include schemes such as:
• Literary techniques
• Themes and ideas
• Political interpretations
• Historical aspects
Chinese Cinderella - Literary
Structures that define this piece of literature
• Auto-biography
• Therefore 1st person authorial/character voice,
and personal perspective
• Non-fiction, prose
• Chronological, yet episodic (non-narrative)
• Reference to traditional motifs and symbols
Chinese Cinderella - Thematic
Family relationships:
• Parent/child
• Stepmother/stepdaughter
• Siblings
• Extended family
• Secrets
Chinese Cinderella - Thematic
Personal survival:
• Individuality
• Identity
• Resilience
• Friends
• Gender
• Sources of strength
Chinese Cinderella - Political
Post-colonial interactions:
• Chinese - European
– Traditional culture and expectations vs
introduced fashions and formats
– Rigid and predictable structures vs
individuality and personal whims
• Niang as Coloniser of the family - exploiting its
resources and making arbitrary judgements to suit
herself and her descendents
Chinese Cinderella - Historical
Period of immense turmoil in Chinese history:
• European colonisation and exploitation
• Japanese invasion
• Nationalist/Communist battle for control
Adeline as symbol of China:
• helpless and exploited
• but maintaining identity and resilience until the
opportunity to assert independence arrives
Criteria for judging literature
• In all these schema, an analyst must determine
how successfully the work achieves its purpose
according to the limits and nature of those
specific criteria
• The criteria are perspectives, points of view,
from which judgements and interpretations can
be made. They are possibilities.
Criteria for judging literature
• They provide a structure, a vocabulary and a range
of options that you (the analyst) may choose to
use to explore and explain a piece of literature.
• They are NOT mutually exclusive. There may be
considerable overlap between the interpretations.
• They are NOT the only possibilities.