Introduction Literature Review M01357

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1. Introduction

Indonesian children‟s literature has grown very fast since 2000, which includes the birth of children‟s writers. Based on his reviews on Indonesian children books, Trimansyah 1999 states that books written by adults tend to be didactic, monotonous, and unrelated to the children‟s readers. Yet, children‟s books are often deemed innocent and so with books written by children. The reform era has opened up more possibilities for childr en‟s writers to write in different genres as major publishing companies facilitate their publications even workshops for these writers. The frontrunner in this type of publication, DARMizan, for example has published more than 300 titles of book series Kecil Kecil Punya Karya henceforth KKPK from about 200 productive children writers Rhamdani, 2013. The popularity of this type of children‟s books has made primary schools purchase the books for their libraries. The fact that the books and their content tend to be taken for granted as good or suitable for children lead us to conduct this research. Specifically, it attempts to examine the ways in which the worlds and societies in texts written by children for their peer are constructed in the book series, Kecil-Kecil Punya Karya henceforth, KKPK . Further, the study aims to unveil and reconstruct the underpinning ideas or ideologies which might have contributed to the worlds created by these children writers in the KKPK texts.

2. Literature Review

The literature review in this study focuses on the issues regarding children‟s literature in relation to ideology and globalization as well as issues on hybridity and children‟s world construction. 1. Barangsiapa dengan sengaja atau tanpa hak melakukan perbuatan sebagaimana dimaksud dalam Pasal 2 ayat 1 dan ayat 2 dipidana dengan pidana penjara masing - masing paling singkat 1 satu bulan danatau denda paling sedikit Rp. 1.000.000 satu juta rupiah, atau pidana penjara paling lama 7 tujuh tahun danatau denda paling banyak Rp. 5.000.000.000 lima milyar rupiah.

2.1 Children’s literature

According to Lynch and Tomlinson 2005:3, ―children‟s literature is good quality trade books for children from birth to adolescence, covering topics of relevance and interest to children of those ages through prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction‖. Hunt 1994 adds that what a culture thinks of as childhood is reflected very closely in the books produced for its citizens. Further, Milne cited in Hunt, 1994:1 who wrote a classic tale Winnie the Pooh, asserts that ―children‟s books… are books chosen for us by others either because they pleased us; or because we have reason for thinking that they please children today; or because we have read them lately, and believe that our adult enjoyment of them is one which younger people can share. Unfortunately, none of these reasons is in itself a sure guide‖. Therefore, these books cannot be considered as innocent and taken for granted, most of all, because of the obvious authorial intent as books for children are usually books written by adults and deemed relevant and interesting for the children.

2.2 Ideology and

children’s literature Ideology in books for children written by children might work in the same levels of ideology and eventually reveal the world that they are living in and lived by. Hollindale‟s three levels 346 of ideology in children‟s literature 1998 are 1 explicit ideology – the most obvious ideology which is usually closely related to the writer‟s social or political conviction, 2 passive ideology – the writer‟s unexamined assumptions, and 3 living ideology – the world lived by the writer and readers

2.3 Globalization and children’s literature

Globalization, according to Lewis and Docter 2011, is characterized by the interactions of ideas, identities, and institutions across nations making up processes of complex economic and cultural interdependence. There are three ways to look into globalization: 1 as an extension of American capitalism, 2 as an unavoidable modern product which might result in neoliberalism and commercialism, and 3 as a cultural paradox. Further, Bhabha 2004: 247 states in his text The location of culture that: ―the transnational dimension of cultural transformation -- migration, diaspora, displacement, relocation -- makes the process of cultural translation a complex form of signification. The naturalized, unifying discourse of nation, peoples, or authentic folk tradition, those embedded myths of cultures particularity, cannot be readily referenced. The great, though unsettling, advantage of this position is that it makes you increasingly aware of the construction of culture and the invention of tradition‖. Hence, globalization might also be evidenced in children‟s literature in forms which reflect the ways interactions of transnational dimension manifest or are consumed.

2.4 Hybridity

The notion of cultural hybridity has existed far before it was popularized in postcolonial theory as culture arising out of interactions between ―colonizers‖ and ―the colonized‖ Yazdiha, 2010, Cohen and Kennedy, 2000. However, after colonialism or imperialism era, globalization has both expanded the reach of Western culture, as well as allowed a process by which the West constantly interacts with the East, appropriating cultures for its own means and continually shifting its own signifiers of dominant culture Yazdiha, 2010. Bhabha 2004, for example, instead of seeing colonialism as something locked in the past; he shows how its histories and cultures constantly intrude on the present, demanding that we transform our understanding of cross-cultural relations. Therefore, Bhabha 2004 sees hybridity as the emergence of new cultural forms from multiculturalism. In line with Bhabha, Cohen and Kennedy 2000:377 refer hybridity principally to the creation of ―dynamic, mobile mixed cultures‖.

2.5 Children’s world construction

Children‟s world construction in this study refers to the construction of the worlds and societies in the book series, Kecil-Kecil Punya Karya henceforth, KKPK written by children for their peer. It includes the underpinning ideas or concepts which might have contributed to the worlds created by these children writers in the KKPK texts. 347

3. Methodology