ORIENTALISM AND CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: AN ANALYSIS OF ADULTS-CHILDREN RELATIONS IN A PICTURE BOOK ENTITLED “BAD BAD BUNNY TROUBLE” WRITTEN BY HANS WILHELM.
ABSTRACT
The present study examines adult-children relations in a picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm (1994) from an Orientalism perspective. The focuses of the study are the portrayal of children in the picture book and the meanings made from the portrayal. Two main theoretical frameworks were used in this study. The first theoretical framework is Orientalism from Said (2003). The second theoretical framework is visual analysis theory from Nodelman (1988) which was used to analyze the pictures. Children are portrayed as the Other while Adults are the Self. The findings indicate that as the Other, children are marginalized and adults take center stage. As the center, adults take charge and expect children to fulfill the adults’ expectation to prepare the children for adulthood. From Orientalism perspective, the adults-children relations in the picture book are the representation of the binary opposition of Self and Other in Orientalism.
Keywords: Orientalism, visual analysis, children’s picture book, children’s literature, The Self, The Other.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
STATEMENT OF AUTHORIZATION ... i
PREFACE ... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... iii
ABSTRACT ... iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... v
LIST OF TABLES ... viii
LIST OF PICTURES ... ix
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 Background ... 1
1.2 Research questions ... 3
1.3 Aims of the Study ... 3
1.4 The Scope of the Study ... 3
1.5 Significance of the Study ... 3
1.6 Research Design ... 3
1.6.1 Data Resources ... 4
1.6.2 Research Procedure ... 4
1.7 Clarification of Related Terms ... 4
1.8 Organization of the Paper... 5
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL FOUNDATION ... 6
2.1 Definition of Orientalism ... 6
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2.2.1 Nodelman’s Orientalism in Children’s Literature... 9
2.2.2 Nodelman’s Orientalism Characteristics in Children’s Literature . 10 2.3 Children’s Literature ... 15
2.3.1 Picture Book as a Genre in Children’s Literature ... 16
2.4 Picture Book Analysis ... 16
2.4.1 Picture Book Elements ... 18
2.5 Previous Study in Orientalism and Children’s Picture Book ... 20
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 22
3.1 Research Design ... 22
3.2 Research Subject and Context ... 22
3.3 Data Collection... 23
3.3.1 Data Collection Procedure ... 23
3.4 Data Analysis ... 23
3.5 Data Presentation ... 24
3.6 Synopsis ... 34
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ... 36
4.1 Children as the Marginalized Character ... 36
4.1.1 Children Positioning ... 36
4.1.2 Children Being Gazed ... 39
4.13 Children Sizing ... 41
4.1.4 Color Backgrounding ... 42
4.1.5 Children Submissive Dialogues ... 43
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4.2.1 Adults as the Role Model ... 45
4.2.2 Children as the Other ... 49
4.3 Discussion ... 53
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS ... 57
5.1 Conclusion ... 57
5.2 Suggestions ... 57
REFERENCES ... 59 APPENDICES
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 ... 25 Table 3.2 ... 27 Table 3.3 ... 32
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LIST OF PICTURES
Picture 4.1 Ralph is portrayed next to the ball ... 37
Picture 4.2 Ralph is positioned in upper left corner of the illustration ... 38
Picture 4.3 Ralph is portrayed in the Center of the page but not facing the reader ... 39
Picture 4.4 Gaze as the symbol of power showed by Ralph’s mother ... 40
Picture 4.5 The Adult foxes are portrayed small on the lower left corner of the page ... 41
Picture 4.6 Transition of background color ... 42
Picture 4.7 Ralph’s mother is ordering Ralph even though she is absent in the illustration ... 44
Picture 4.8 Adults saving the children from an outside threat ... 46
Picture 4.9 Adult foxes become the main focus of the illustration ... 47
Picture 4.10 Adult bull get rid off the savage foxes ... 48
Picture 4.11 Other animals in a barn ... 49
Picture 4.12 Ralph is finally accepted by the adults ... 51
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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Orientalism was popularized by the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism in 1978. According to Said (2003), Orientalism is basically an
investigation of European people’s attitude toward Asians. The investigation looked into different types of European documents which described Asian people, and it was found that European people described Asian people based on their own assumptions and knowledge. Therefore from the investigation, Said (2003) comes to the conclusion that Orientalism can be seen as the way European people describes Asian people through their own perspectives and based on their own beliefs which in turns becomes the propaganda of geopolitical consciousness and geographic distinction.
It is also important to note that the way Europeans described Asians through their perspective cannot be separated from the Western philosophy which was set in logocentricism. Derrida (2007 cited in Bressler, 2007) explains that thinking from a logocentric way is to think by taking oneself as the center of reality as the basis of all thoughts and actions. This is why European people place themselves as the center. The center from a structuralist perspective is the Self which is in (binary) opposition with the Other. Orientalism cannot be separated from the concept of Self and Other. In this case, Said (2003) claims that the Europeans or the Westerns is the Self or Occident, while the other (non-Occident, including Asians) is the Orient. As the Occident, the Europeans is the center of thought and action. Consequently, the Other or the Orient is everything which are not the center of thought and action. In other words, the Orient is the margin
which is created from the Europeans’ assumption about the Orient.
Furthermore, Orientalism as a discourse has the potential to be related to political power. However, Said (2003) believes that it is not always direct. Instead, it is created through political power, in this case, the power of European
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societies. This is evidenced in science, linguistics, literatures and many other aspects (Said, 2003). One example of Orientalism in literature can be found in
J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of The Ring. Winegar (2005), who examined Tolkien’s
The Lord of The Ring, explains that Tolkien implicitly uses Orientalism aspects in his novel to describe the characters and the settings of Middle Earth. He further mentions that in dividing the region of Middle Earth for example, Tolkien placed Mordor, the headquarter of the evil characters, in the eastern part of Middle Earth. The description of the characters who live in Mordor also have the characteristics of the Orient. What can be learned is that Tolkien indicated that he shared the same assumption about what constituted the East (the Orient) because he constructed the character of the Eastern part of Middle Earth people based on his assumption.
In addition, several studies have revealed that Orientalism has also
emerged in children’s literature. Griffin (2012) asserts that children’s literature
which is written by adults can be used as a means of transmitting ideas, morals and opinion. An example of this would be a study conducted by Nodelman (1992) who investigated Orientalism issues in children’s literature. The investigation looks into the relationship between children and adults, and how children are put as the Other while adults are put in the position of the Self.
Based on the study above, this paper attempts to analyze a picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm (1994) using an Orientalism perspective. The picture book is chosen as the main subject of the study because of its availability in the internet. This picture book can easily be downloaded by kindergarten teachers to be used as teaching materials. Since kindergarten teachers in Indonesia tend to have difficulties in finding good English picture book for teaching materials, downloading materials from the internet is one way to solve
the problem. Therefore it is likely that “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” is widely used
by Indonesian kindergarten teachers.
Beside Said’s Orientalism theory, to help analyze the data, this paper uses the visual analysis theory proposed by Nodelman (1988) considering that “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” is a picture book. Therefore, Nodelman’s theory (1988) is
(9)
needed to analyze the elaboration of pictures, images, visual objects, its contextual meanings and their relationship with other elements in picture books.
1.2 Research Questions
This study is gearing towards answering the following questions:
1. How are children portrayed in picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny
Trouble”?
2. What meanings can be made from this portrayal from Orientalism perspective?
1.3 Aims of the Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the portrayal of children in a picture
book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble”. It also examines the meanings of this
portrayal from an orientalist perspective.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
The study specifically examines Hans Wilhelm’s ”Bad Bad Bunny
Trouble” picture book to construct the meaning of children’s portrayal from an Orientalist perspective.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The results of this study are expected to give more information and suggestion about another form and perspective of orientalism. Hopefully, this study can enrich literature on the same topic.
1.6 Research Design
The research design of this study is qualitative because it attempts to analyze descriptive data in the form of words and images which are the portrayal of children as other and the meaning from the picture book. This is in line with Cormack (1993), who states that a qualitative research method is an appropriate research procedure to analyze and produce descriptive data in spoken or written
(10)
words of people and also their behavior. In addition, Strauss and Corbin (1998) suggest that to understand and uncover what lies behind any phenomenon, a qualitative research design is an appropriate approach.
1.6.1 Data Resource
The data, in the form of images and words, were taken from a picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm. The picture book have potentials to be used as teaching material in kindergarten in Indonesia because of its easy access from the internet. This, for Indonesian teachers is a solution to the problem of finding kindergarten books for their students.
1.6.2 Research Procedure
This study is conducted based on these following steps:
1. Defining Self and Other characteristics based on Orientalism theory proposed by Said (2003) and Nodelman (1992) criteria;
2. Making criteria of what constitute Self and Other according to Said (2003) and Nodelman (1992);
3. Identifying images and written texts in the picture book using the criteria of Self and Other that have been made previously;
4. Interpreting the data with visual analysis theory proposed by Nodelman (1988) and relating it with Orientalism theory to create textual evidence from an Orientalist perspective;
5. Concluding all the analysis.
1.7 Clarification of Related Terms
There are some terms in this study that need to be clarified to avoid misconception and misunderstanding as follows:
1. Orientalism : An idea or way of thinking which is made based on ontologically and epistemologically distinction by the Occident or the
(11)
2. The Orient : Edward Said’s term to refer to the Other. A concept that is created by European people (the West) to define the East,
or Asians and countries which are not ‘west’. (Said, 2003)
3. The Occident : Edward Said’s term to refer to the Self. A concept to represent European people or the west as the opposite concept of the orient and the central of thoughts and actions (Said, 2003).
1.8 Organization of the paper
The organization of the paper is divided into five chapters and they are as follows:
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the introduction of the study which cover the study background and research questions.
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter discusses related theories of the study which are used to analyze and to interpret the data of the study. This chapter also presents some previous studies that are related to the issue.
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides the methodology of the study to answer the research questions.
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter consists of findings and the discussion of the study.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter is the interpretation and the conclusions of the study. The suggestions for further study is also provided in this chapter.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presents the conclusion of the study and provides suggestion for further research.
5.1 Conclusion
From the findings, it is concluded that children in “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm are portrayed as the Other. In this particular picture book, children as the Other are positioned at the margin so that they become less powerful than the adults. With adults as the self, children are actually not as the main character.
Adults dominate children for their own interest and make the children as the marginalized character or the Other. The adults tell the children what to do, what they can do and what they cannot do for their own interest. They show children what is good for them and what is bad by using their power as adults. They want the children to fulfill their expectation and to be prepared to become adults like them. Thus, the adults keep the children as the marginalized character or the Other and become the role model in the picture book.
The relation of adult and children as Self and Other has resulted in the active role of the adults as characters who take charge, make decisions and determine the course of the story. The role necessitates adults among others to use the children’s book as a mean of teaching. Therefore, this implies the nature of children’s book as a tool to teach children about what to do and not do in the adult world.
5.2 Suggestions
Since this study use children’s literature as the main subject, the writer suggest that more studies on children’s literature, especially in picture books, should be conducted. So that, the studies can help the readers see picture books from different perspectives. This study is also hoped to increase the readers’
(13)
awareness of the issues that are put in picture books. However, there are still many shortcomings in this study; therefore, this study is still open for further analysis such as in terms of other genre in children’s literature.
Moreover, there are still many other theories beside Said’s (2003) Orientalism and Nodelman’s (1988) visual analysis that can be used to analyze the books. The writer also hopes that Indonesian local children’s literature can also be analyzed. The reason is because Indonesian local picture book are not well developed yet. It is hoped that by doing a critical study about Indonesian local picture books, both the critics and the books can be developed well.
(1)
societies. This is evidenced in science, linguistics, literatures and many other aspects (Said, 2003). One example of Orientalism in literature can be found in
J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of The Ring. Winegar (2005), who examined Tolkien’s
The Lord of The Ring, explains that Tolkien implicitly uses Orientalism aspects in his novel to describe the characters and the settings of Middle Earth. He further mentions that in dividing the region of Middle Earth for example, Tolkien placed Mordor, the headquarter of the evil characters, in the eastern part of Middle Earth. The description of the characters who live in Mordor also have the characteristics of the Orient. What can be learned is that Tolkien indicated that he shared the same assumption about what constituted the East (the Orient) because he constructed the character of the Eastern part of Middle Earth people based on his assumption.
In addition, several studies have revealed that Orientalism has also
emerged in children’s literature. Griffin (2012) asserts that children’s literature
which is written by adults can be used as a means of transmitting ideas, morals and opinion. An example of this would be a study conducted by Nodelman (1992) who investigated Orientalism issues in children’s literature. The investigation looks into the relationship between children and adults, and how children are put as the Other while adults are put in the position of the Self.
Based on the study above, this paper attempts to analyze a picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm (1994) using an Orientalism perspective. The picture book is chosen as the main subject of the study because of its availability in the internet. This picture book can easily be downloaded by kindergarten teachers to be used as teaching materials. Since kindergarten teachers in Indonesia tend to have difficulties in finding good English picture book for teaching materials, downloading materials from the internet is one way to solve
the problem. Therefore it is likely that “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” is widely used
by Indonesian kindergarten teachers.
Beside Said’s Orientalism theory, to help analyze the data, this paper uses
the visual analysis theory proposed by Nodelman (1988) considering that “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” is a picture book. Therefore, Nodelman’s theory (1988) is
(2)
needed to analyze the elaboration of pictures, images, visual objects, its contextual meanings and their relationship with other elements in picture books.
1.2 Research Questions
This study is gearing towards answering the following questions:
1. How are children portrayed in picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny
Trouble”?
2. What meanings can be made from this portrayal from Orientalism perspective?
1.3 Aims of the Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the portrayal of children in a picture
book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble”. It also examines the meanings of this
portrayal from an orientalist perspective.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
The study specifically examines Hans Wilhelm’s ”Bad Bad Bunny
Trouble” picture book to construct the meaning of children’s portrayal from an
Orientalist perspective.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The results of this study are expected to give more information and suggestion about another form and perspective of orientalism. Hopefully, this study can enrich literature on the same topic.
1.6 Research Design
The research design of this study is qualitative because it attempts to analyze descriptive data in the form of words and images which are the portrayal of children as other and the meaning from the picture book. This is in line with Cormack (1993), who states that a qualitative research method is an appropriate research procedure to analyze and produce descriptive data in spoken or written
(3)
words of people and also their behavior. In addition, Strauss and Corbin (1998) suggest that to understand and uncover what lies behind any phenomenon, a qualitative research design is an appropriate approach.
1.6.1 Data Resource
The data, in the form of images and words, were taken from a picture book entitled “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm. The picture book have potentials to be used as teaching material in kindergarten in Indonesia because of its easy access from the internet. This, for Indonesian teachers is a solution to the problem of finding kindergarten books for their students.
1.6.2 Research Procedure
This study is conducted based on these following steps:
1. Defining Self and Other characteristics based on Orientalism theory proposed by Said (2003) and Nodelman (1992) criteria;
2. Making criteria of what constitute Self and Other according to Said (2003) and Nodelman (1992);
3. Identifying images and written texts in the picture book using the criteria of Self and Other that have been made previously;
4. Interpreting the data with visual analysis theory proposed by Nodelman (1988) and relating it with Orientalism theory to create textual evidence from an Orientalist perspective;
5. Concluding all the analysis.
1.7 Clarification of Related Terms
There are some terms in this study that need to be clarified to avoid misconception and misunderstanding as follows:
1. Orientalism : An idea or way of thinking which is made based on ontologically and epistemologically distinction by the Occident or the
(4)
2. The Orient : Edward Said’s term to refer to the Other. A concept that is created by European people (the West) to define the East,
or Asians and countries which are not ‘west’. (Said, 2003)
3. The Occident : Edward Said’s term to refer to the Self. A concept to represent European people or the west as the opposite concept of the orient and the central of thoughts and actions (Said, 2003).
1.8 Organization of the paper
The organization of the paper is divided into five chapters and they are as follows:
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the introduction of the study which cover the study background and research questions.
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter discusses related theories of the study which are used to analyze and to interpret the data of the study. This chapter also presents some previous studies that are related to the issue.
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides the methodology of the study to answer the research questions.
CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter consists of findings and the discussion of the study.
CHAPTER V CONCLUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter is the interpretation and the conclusions of the study. The suggestions for further study is also provided in this chapter.
(5)
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter presents the conclusion of the study and provides suggestion for further research.
5.1 Conclusion
From the findings, it is concluded that children in “Bad Bad Bunny Trouble” by Hans Wilhelm are portrayed as the Other. In this particular picture book, children as the Other are positioned at the margin so that they become less powerful than the adults. With adults as the self, children are actually not as the main character.
Adults dominate children for their own interest and make the children as the marginalized character or the Other. The adults tell the children what to do, what they can do and what they cannot do for their own interest. They show children what is good for them and what is bad by using their power as adults. They want the children to fulfill their expectation and to be prepared to become adults like them. Thus, the adults keep the children as the marginalized character or the Other and become the role model in the picture book.
The relation of adult and children as Self and Other has resulted in the active role of the adults as characters who take charge, make decisions and determine the course of the story. The role necessitates adults among others to use the children’s book as a mean of teaching. Therefore, this implies the nature of children’s book as a tool to teach children about what to do and not do in the adult world.
5.2 Suggestions
Since this study use children’s literature as the main subject, the writer suggest that more studies on children’s literature, especially in picture books, should be conducted. So that, the studies can help the readers see picture books from different perspectives. This study is also hoped to increase the readers’
(6)
awareness of the issues that are put in picture books. However, there are still many shortcomings in this study; therefore, this study is still open for further analysis such as in terms of other genre in children’s literature.
Moreover, there are still many other theories beside Said’s (2003) Orientalism and Nodelman’s (1988) visual analysis that can be used to analyze the books. The writer also hopes that Indonesian local children’s literature can also be analyzed. The reason is because Indonesian local picture book are not well developed yet. It is hoped that by doing a critical study about Indonesian local picture books, both the critics and the books can be developed well.