Deconstruction in Children‟s Literature
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Deconstruction in children‟s literature also has a mission “to expand the universe of small, to give voice to children and listening to their
speeches; allowing representing childhood in their own way…” Silvia, 2014: 55. Children need to be aware to re-think about gender roles that,
for instance, girls must be obedient and dependent on boys. They are not allowed to be
free from adults‟ interference. They need to re-think about classism and racism which happen nowadays in certain places and how
they affect humanity. By doing that, they will be critically reading, thinking, and presenting role in their real life.
Jacqueline Rose, James Kincaid, Perry Nodelman, Kimberley Reynolds, and Karin Lesnik-Oberstein in Lassen-Seger, 2006: 10
suggest that this approach “has enabled oppositions between adulthood and childhood to be deconstructed in order to expose and possibly
challenge existing power relationship.” In children‟s stories, there have been many binary opposites such as adultchild, gentlemanpirate,
masterslave, malefemale, whiteblack, humananimal. These binaries can create structure that is problematic in external reality, for example, the
meaning of „gentlemen‟ in Stevenson‟s Treasure Island is the opposite of „pirates‟ meaning. It is because „gentlemen‟ is constructed as „brave‟,
„knowledgeable‟, „neat, „honest‟, „self-controlled‟, and „sober‟. Whereas, „pirates‟ meaning is the opposite of those „gentlemen‟ meaning,
„innocent‟, „dirty‟, „deceitful, „violent‟, „drunken‟ Hourihan, 1997: 16.
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He adds that “The effect of binary opposition thinking is to naturalize
domination” Hourihan. 1997: 17. It means that the way of binary opposition works is to create „certain way of thinking‟ and if it wins by
believing that dominating one is better and over „the other‟, it will dominate and make neutral conception. Nevertheless, children need to be
„trained‟ to critically think about that. For instance, whiteblack, Americannon-American, superiorinferior, adultchild, are related one
another. The secondary term, black, non-American, inferior, child, are the members of white, American, superior, and adult. They only lack of white,
American, superior, and adult‟s qualities that are presented as the essence of their identities Hourihan, 1997: 17. People, including children, cannot
move from binary opposition thinking, but they need to look at the relation of those binaries rather than taking it for granted.
Hourihan 1997: 205-234 believes that the mission of deconstruction in children‟s literature besides correcting and re-thinking about those
binaries and logocentrism is „rewriting new stories‟. It writes stories where they subvert the binary oppositions about gender, race, class, deny those
binary opposition as it is only an illusion, deny the logocentrism and change the point of view from whose eyes the stories are told. Here, it is to
show the deconstructed children‟s book nowadays. It can be concluded that stories which reveal the existence of positive traits of children, Black
community, Muslim community, need to be introduced to children. Stories that subvert binary opposition, deny logocentrism, observe the ideology,
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change the point of view are the new deconstructed stories. Deconstruction tries to give a privilege to the marginalized ones, in this
case children, to be the one that can be seen from different angles. The above situation is done as Jacqueline Rose in Nodelman, 2008:
230 considers “the opposition between child and the adult…are structural
oppositions on the strictest sense, in that each term only has meaning in relation to the one to which it is opposed. They do not reflect an
essential truth about the child…” She means to say that contradiction of adultchild opposition has „created‟
the meaning of child who is represented as „wild‟, „uncontrolled‟, „powerless‟, „innocent‟, „weak‟, etc, only because those meanings are the
opposites of „adult‟ meaning, such as „civilized‟, „controlled‟, „powerful‟, „knowledgeable‟, „strong‟, etc. the characteristics of a child are not always
the essential truth about child characteristics.