Australian Children’s Literature
EDU21ACL
Week 10 - Lecture 1
And now, the end is near …
© La Trobe University, David Beagley 2006
Let’s do some revision …
Introduction: Noble Intentions
This subject aims to develop your:
• Understanding of how Children’s Literature has
developed in Australia as distinct from other English
language literature.
• Knowledge of the scope and development of Australian
Children's Literature with a specific focus on a range
of genres such as Family, Adventure and Fantasy
stories.
Let’s do some revision …
Introduction: Noble Intentions
This subject aims to develop your:
• Skill in interpreting and responding to Children's
Literature.
• Understanding of appropriate criteria for evaluating
different kinds of Children's Literature.
• Awareness of the language and concepts of literary
analysis
Week 1: What is Australian?
Is it …
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written IN Australia
set IN Australia
written BY an Australian
aimed AT an Australian audience
refer TO Australia
written ABOUT Australia
• REQUIRE Australia as a key aspect
• REFLECT Australian society and values
Week 2: What makes something
funny?
Why do we laugh at one thing and not at another?
• outside the expected – extra-ordinary,
unpredictable
• non-threatening, usually focussed on others
• positive and affirming social interaction
• can be a social marker that excludes as well as
includes
Week 2: What makes something
funny?
Elements of humour
• Exaggeration – beyond the normal
• Incongruity – juxtaposition
• Surprise – sudden and unexpected
• Absurdity – improbable and impossible
Types of humour
• Physical – slapstick
• Visual - appearance
• Verbal – the manipulation of language
• Situational – normal conditions subverted
Week 3: Family - realism
IN family, ABOUT family, or FOR family
– setting, theme or audience?
• Aspects of family as narrative features – e.g. unity,
loyalty, identity, responsibility, etc.
• What does the story tell about families? –
definition, roles, pressures, etc.
• Readership and common elements to be shared by
the various “stakeholders” in a family
Week 3: Family - realism
What is Voice?
Reader’s impression of the “one” telling the story
How is Voice conveyed?
• Personal voice - By the language characteristics of the
“speaker”
• Social or Cultural voice - By the issues expressed
Narrative Voice:
• The perspective of the narrator who tells the story within
the author’s creation
• May be unidentified, and could be …
• Authorial voice - the actual credited writer of the text who
makes deliberate choices about what to include or exclude
• Character voice - a specific character from within the story
who narrates the story from her/his personal perspective
Week 4: Family - History
Strategies used to ‘fictionalize’ a true story – memoirs,
biographies etc.
 Use of point of view – involved, not detached
author/observer/learned commentator
 Thus, direct/immediate – speech, thoughts, “little”
details of life
 Takes factual experience and makes it personal
 Words focus on trying to make sense of the situation,
rather than analyse/judge it
Week 5: Family – social issues
What aspects of family are:
• examined
• e.g. sibling rivalry, parent-child relations, parental
responsibility, mutual support, loyalty, identity,
format (nuclear, extended, lone parent … ), “social”
family/ group, cultural expectations, social
pressures …
• emphasised
• The resilience of “blood” family, the format of the
social family, personal growth within the family
structure …
Week 5: Family – social issues
1. Does the book claim to offer an account of a typical or
unique Australian family? Is this claim convincing?
• To what extent are stereotypes of class, culture,
gender and sibling roles presented or resisted?
• Will these help or hinder reader identification with
characters?
2. Are the events and characters depicted likely to appeal
to children?
• Will this book reward young readers by offering
worthwhile insights into ordinary experience related to
family life?
• Does the book tend to offer overt or over-simplistic
moral lessons about family responsibilities, duties,
rights and desirable roles?
Week 5: Family – social issues
3. Is there a plot resolution and is it convincing in terms
of ordinary experience?
• How does the author deal with the challenging problem
of resolving or 'rounding off' reality in the final
chapters?
4. Does the book offer anything new to this sub-genre in
terms of theme, plot or characterisation?
• Is the book likely to become dated in its version of the
contemporary family and issues confronting children
within it?
Week 6: Adventure
Demonstrates many of the key elements in the
development of Children’s Literature over time:
• Social realism, relevance and “appropriateness” for children
• Reflection of social changes: gender, attitudes to “others”,
post-colonialism
• Recognition of children as a distinct audience (entertainment
or teaching morality)
• Interaction with many sub-genres
The Lure of adventure
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Identifiable heroes
Exotic settings
Gripping suspenseful storylines
Reinforcement of values, especially gender
The Extraordinary and the Probable
Week 7: Fantasy
• Adventure Stories must balance the extraordinary and
the probable by taking short steps through reality
towards the exciting
• Fantasy Stories shift the balance in some literary aspects
more towards the extraordinary
BUT NOT ALL
• Key element is IMAGINATION
the capability of “forming mental images of things not
actually present” (Tolkien)
• Is Adventure a distinct genre of literature, or is it a
cross-genre style of writing?
e.g. Adventure – plot
Fantasy - setting
Week 7: Fantasy
• The relationship between the Primary and the
Secondary world
• Once you take away the fantasy element of the
Secondary world , what of the Primary world do you
see?
• Is there a commentary on universal aspects of the
Primary world?
• Is there a commentary on Australia or is the
Australian-ness simply a convenient setting?
• Is there any particular Australian-ness? Does it
matter?
Week 8: Fantasy
• Agency – the capacity to act
• Agency is socially determined – i.e. it reflects what
society allows or expects of the hero
• Male agency – reflects male social stereotype
• Physical, aggressive, confronting danger, risk taking
• Female agency – reflects female social stereotype
• Nurturing, caring, repairing, submissive
• Thus, characterization problem for an author:
• Hero or Heroine? Should the key female show male
agency or female agency?
• Is the heroic behaviour appropriate in her society?
• … or the reader’s society?
Week 9: Short Stories
Elements of the Short Story
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Episodic - examines a single aspect of a situation
Emphatic - creates its impression quickly
Allusive – allude, imply, much is left unsaid
Varied – different styles and genres may be used in a
single text
• Conclusive - ends as soon as the point is made, though
situation may be unresolved
Swimming pool – cup of water
• Same elements but different intensity
• The cup must contain all the essential features of the
complete ocean
• The short story must still be a literate creation
Week 9: Verse Novels
What can the Verse Novel do well?
• Poetic devices that convey:
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Succinct and immediate images
The power of metaphor and suggestion
A gradual building of tension or impression
Internalised characterization
• The reader must work
What might it struggle to achieve?
• Detailed …
– Description - scene, action, character etc.
– Conversations
– Narrator’s perspective - bias of 1st person
• Smooth sequence and continuity