Conventional Children‟s Literature

42 and white. If there is a jealous step sister, she must be ugly and wicked. If there is a princess, she must be beautiful and kind. They never change until the story ends and they seem flawless. Besides, there are stock characters such as fairy godmother, handsome and brave prince, wicked step mother and step sister, etc Lukens, 1999: 95. However, Hourihan 1997: 11, in his book entitled Deconstructing the Hero, believes that the power of myth and fairytales is very strong. As the elements of myth and fairytales are constructed already, they are apparent often in other generation stories. The stories have different title, character and setting, yet the essence is exactly the same. For example, the story of Oddesy written during the second millennium of BC has the same pattern with Where the Wild Things Are that is written in 1963. The essence of pattern is just the same, regaining position, freedom and domination. Roland Barthes adds that myth and fairy tales function as shaping people, as well as children, “perception of reality” Hourihan, 1997: 12. A nother example is the setting in conventional children‟s literature which usually uses “Once upon a time” or “Long time ago”. The setting is backdrop where it can be everywhere even happens again here and now to people nowadays. There is no specific time and place because there is only little time to describe place and time Lukens, 1999: 169. Furthermore, the theme in conventional children‟s literature is very general and universal. Almost all folk tales in different cultures have similar theme about human nature and life. Lukens 1999: 142 43 emphasizes this by saying that themes such as a doing hard work to achieve success, b being kind hearted to have a reward, c being patient in achieving a dream, d having inner beauty which is more valuable than physical beauty, are often told even written explicitly and straight forward. Therefore, it is always easy to get the theme or moral value in the conventional children‟s literature. Even though “through folktales, children can experience the wishes, dreams, and problems of people around the world and discover that all people share a need for love, hope and security” Santino in Smith and Wiese, 2006: 69, telling explicitly theme, especially the one which is not specific is quite problematic for children. It seems rude that the writers try to “preach”, not to teach. In addition, it indicates that children are not able to wider their knowledge to get the message of the story. Conventional children‟s literature contains several serious problems besides those already mentioned. The first problem is that there is possibility of creating “fixed” or “universal truth” in the stories Lukens, 1999: 142. The “truth” is created by language existing in the social context and they are very ideological. That the depiction of a princess who is always saved by prince, a step daughter who is always obedient to her wicked step mother, a sacrifice done by a daughter, and revenge is not good in those fairy t ales and folk tales are meant to „construct‟ readers thinking including children. Children‟s books are part of the structure which is ideological. Pattern of the stories are constructed already and the 44 pattern which is often apparent is Western patriarchal superiority Hourihan, 1997: 11. This kind of ideology is one example of “structures” that is showed in the pattern of fairy tales, myth, and folktales which, as mentioned before, have always had very strong influence on children‟s fiction. The second pr oblem from conventional children‟s literature is that it strongly contains what is called as didacticism. Gapalakrishan 2011: 5-6 elaborates few explanation about the emergence of conventional children‟s literature. Starting from the 16 th to 17 th centuries at which fairytales, folktales, myths, and other religious and moralistic stories flourished, they were used as didactic tales, to “tell” what is wrong, what is right, what to do, what not to do. Stories such as John Bunyan‟s Pilgrim Progress and a short animal tales from Asian Culture entitled Pachantatra or translated as The Five Principles or Life tell moralistic value and directly tell them what is right and what is wrong. Children who follow that will be rewarded by God, yet for them who break the rules and are not obedient, will be punished by God and it is hell that waits for them. Of course, this is not always good and since “these stories were more cautionary and violent, meant to scare children…into correct behavior” Gapalakrishan, 2011: 6. It means to say that the stories try to “construct” the correct behavior of children which becomes standard or ideal. However, people must be aware that the “ideal standard” is created by adults, by Western philosophy and its ideology about childhood. 45 The other and the most serious problem is conventional children‟s literature is not “children themselves”. Those stories do not reflect children inside them, yet they are categorized as children‟s literature. After the emergence of children‟s stories in the 16 th and 17 th centuries, there are stories in the 18 th and 19 th centuries which talk about adventure and travel. It happens as people at that time started to discover new lands and new fields Gapalakrishan, 2011: 6. There are some examples of these 18 th and 19 th centuries children‟s stories, such as Guliver’s Travels and collected short stories by the brother Grimms, Grimm ’s Fairy Tales. However, those stories mostly do not contain children. They cannot be the mirror for children and it is of course problematic. According to Mankiw and Strasser 2013: 85, “Books are mirrors in which children can see themselves. When they are represented in literature we read, they can see themselves as valuable and worthy of notice.” Here, Mankiw and Strasser emphasize if there are no child characters in the stories children read, they cannot feel they are there in that particular situations. They cannot “recognize” themselves as a child and their behavior reflected in the books. As mentioned before about the point of view of fairy tales and folk tales, it is often not from children‟s eyes. Nevertheless, Peter Hunt in Nodelman, 1992: 34 suggests that children‟s stories and the writers need to “think about children and read children‟s literature from a child‟s point of vie w”. As agreed before that children‟s literature is any literary works intended for children as the main audience, from whose eyes the stories 46 are told, then, become s important. Nevertheless, the “eye” in conventional children‟s literature is not children‟s, rather it is adults who write for themselves. It is supported by Nodelman 2008: 193 explaining that “Childhood and a childlike point of view are, once more, constructs of adults minds that adults work to impose on children, in part by means of children ‟s literature.” It can be seen that adults only uses the childlike thinking when they were young. What is good about children‟s point of view is not to impose the child point of view like the adults experience in the past, but like what children experience today.

2. Unconventional Children‟s Literature

Moving to the 20 th century, children‟s literature, including children‟s books and magazine, starts to come into their own. At least in the late 20 th century, there have come unconventional children‟s literature, or people also call it as con temporary children‟s literature. In addition, what makes the 20 th century children‟s literature different from conventional ones is the distinction of genres. They include historical fiction, realistic fiction, science fiction, modern fantasy, poetry, even picture books Gapalakrishan, 2011: 7. Society has changed and it might be changing in the future. That is why , since people‟s attitude to children is changing, literature for children is changing, too. People, including children, cannot deny the fact that, 47 unfortunately, in this century, war, death, divorce, murder, crime, physical and sexual abuse, starvation, violence, terror, and poverty are parts of their life. Every time, from the morning to the evening, children are exposed to those topics both in the news and entertainment Gapalakrishan, 2011: 4. Parents commonly think that those sensitive or risky topics are not good to be introduced to children even through literature. However, Mankiw and Starsser 2013: 85 argue that parents need to see those sensitive issues including death, terrorism, bullying, diversity, family diversity, disabilities, homelessness, and mental disorder not as problems which need to be hidden from children. They need to see them as subjects that become part of their daily life of family and children. If the reason is that parents do not know how to approach those sensitive issues to children, unconventional children‟s literature comes to help them. Lukens, et al 2013: 26 believes that such sensitive issues can be handled also with sympathy by good and skillful writers. Such writers like Jacqueline Wilson, Judy Blume, Katherine Patterson, Beverly Clearly, Julius Lester, Jacqueline Woodson, etc, are examples of unconventional children‟s literature writers who put sensitive issues neatly and properly on their works. Subjects that were once considered as taboo such as sexual growth and the effect, free sex, premarital sex, abortion, impotence, autism, crime, and pregnancy are confronted in unconventional children‟s stories. 48 This is also affirmed by Nodelman 1992: 32 saying that people, it means adults, parents, and children‟s literature writers, need to “provide young readers with a „realistic‟ description of people and events that insist on the reality of one particular way of looking at the world and themselves…” Stories such as having family member who suffers from mental disorder or autism, having father in prison, being wedded in very early age, etc are sensitive topics yet they need-to-be-recognized by children as they are part of this changed era. Adults, including parents, need to refresh their understanding about children nowadays who are different from children from past generations. Unconventional children‟s literature is someway better than the conventional one as it, firstly, opens children‟s mind that there are such complicated problems in the world. As explained before, besides providing pleasure, children‟s literature must provide as well understanding and becoming the “window” for children. By reading children‟s stories about realistic and sensitive topics which are close to their everyday life, besides fairy tales and fantasy, books can be the aids for them to encourage and motivate them in reading and learning about the world Bothelo and Rudman, 2009: 1. Through literature, children can recognize the world‟s situation. They can see issues of war, poverty, and disease from the TV or the internet, but literature gives them encouragement to read and know more about the world.