Change in Perception of Power in the Relationship Between Author and Reader - Essay Example

?Postmodernism in Picture Books Introduction There are several questioned meanings of postmodernism, and the problems of situating the connection between modernism and postmodernism reveal a difficulty that may be thought to rule out children’s literature. Nevertheless, it is exactly the essence of the activity of writing a picture book, and the power relations involved in that task, which build a certain connection between children’s literature and postmodernism’s attitude towards cultural change (Grenby 2009). By taking into account children’s literature in a record of storybook history it is likely to discern the postmodern inclination in literature and art as an act of going back to or, possibly, a rereading of the fanaticism of a Romantic perception of the relationship between an adult and reader. Postmodern thinkers, like Lyotard, question the trustworthiness of the major literatures that have governed cultural production from the time of the Enlightenment (Beckett 2001). Even though this standpoint may seem to abandon the essentialist nature of Romantic interpretations of childhood, the understood audience of postmodern picture books remains characterised in Romantic terms (Lundin 2004). The components that characterise the texts that will be discussed in this essay as postmodern may be liberating and revolutionary, but the public reading of children’s literature persists to devalue its artistic, visual and experimental value. The devaluation of writing picture books and other literature for children and its relationship with popular culture situate it in a bond with characteristics of high culture that are always challenged in postmodern theories (Thacker & Webb 2002). Moreover, the inequality of the relationship between the ‘innocent, receptive’ (ibid, p. 42) child and the ‘adult, knowing’ (Thacker & Webb 2002, 42) writer, and the awkward thought that narratives can be arsenals of general realities, are all included in the debates which contain politics, culture, and art in this postmodern period. The Essence of Postmodernism in Picture Books Contrary to the enlarging market in popular children’s literature, which reflects developments in pulp publishing for grownups, the encouragements to take part in revolutionary playfulness and the inclinations of several children’s books to deconstruct require a comparison with the most revolutionary postmodern critiques of art (Moebius 2009). Questions regarding the trustworthiness of Enlightenment absolutes’ metanarratives reveal an unworkable tie between the Romantic ideas of childhood as basically naive, and the postmodern techniques that define the most stimulating current children’s literature (Whalley 2009). Although the challenges to essentialist and absolutes perspective mark postmodernism’s principles, if something quite changing can be thought to present ideologies, the strategies that define texts for children offer a more liberal reading practice that usually seems to depend on a view of children indicative of the Romantic ideas of the pre-social newborn (Browne 1999). Subversion’s components existent, specifically, in current picture books, for instance, entice children as audience to build a strong connection to the text and strengthen the ties between romantic disorder and postmodernism introduced by Brooker (1992). Metafictional techniques, narrative fractures, and parodic symbols which draw interest on the increasing values of literature can all be located in current picture books for children (Moebius 2009). Such elements act as a dispute to prevailing interpretations of childhood and represent an implicit audience. The array of themes which involve children and their reading practices: parents, teachers, journalists, and others, voice out an overpowering fear about the influences of present-day society on concepts of childhood as, one way or another, perfect (Goldstone 2009). The conflict in human relationships, most frequently found in the changes in family structures, and the influence of media and technology, seem to intimidate Romantic ideas of childhood. The child, separated from the values of the nuclear family and the beliefs of established religion devoured by the growth in ‘adulterated’, sexualised perceptions of the body, and materialism, has become an intimidating, unmanageable force (Thacker & Webb 2002). On the other hand, by involving the situations of children in current society, several authors initiated playful exercise of postmodern techniques that situate children as audiences in an influential stance (Grenby 2009). The level to which children are currently inundated by a stream of conflicting images from movies and television shows and are characterised by their position in consumer society can be viewed as an impact in contemporary children’s texts (Beckett 2001). Although those texts, which are intensely promoted and comprise most of the sales of children’s book, could be idle and rigid, there are also several authors appealing to the importance and artfulness of children’s texts as a combination of low and high culture. It is obvious instantly that several of the authors of children’s literature are illustrators and creators of picture books or, otherwise, authors for the teenage or young adult market (Whalley 2009). Numerous scholars, like David Lewis and Geoff Moss, have remarked on the postmodern features of the current picture book, and it is interesting that this certain type has not been applied by the cultural scholar as an illustration of a postmodern understanding in both linguistic and artistic terms (Lundin 2004). Although the discourse on The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales provides a more thorough explanation of one interesting illustration of this kind of text, it is the occurrence with which contemporary picture books accept the parodic defiance of leading stories and hence draw interest to the narratives’ constructedness (Thacker & Webb 2002), which should be emphasised in this essay. For example, Allan and Janet Ahlberg in the series of Jolly Postman are more controlled in their playful use of fairy tales, but have in common the metafictional techniques that define the most revolutionary creations of Lane Smith and Jon Scieszka (Thacker & Webb 2002). Nevertheless, although the play of Ahlberg within the world of fairy tale that the depictions suggest, the American Smith and Scieszka disturb and weaken the fantasy world and try to weaken the moralistic, and hence manipulative, influence of fairy tales (Lundin 2004). Their works are, to a certain extent, parodic and work both as a release from the didactic aims of fairy tales, and as a postmodern recognition of their cultural value (Lundin 2004). Squids Will be Squids (2000 as cited in Thacker & Webb 2002) adopts this principle: applying the style of the fables of Aesop though, at the same time, informing the risks of fables as a kind of social analysis. By structuring their parodic fables with the real narrative of Aesop and his demise, the writers provide a metafictional interpretation which draws interest to the influence of narratives (Goldstone 2009). Likewise, Babette Cole employs her rebellious depictions and carnivalesque attention to physical tasks to weaken the influence of children’s narratives to modify gender stereotypes on their audiences. In works like Princess Smartypants (1994) and Hair in Funny Places (2000), she is successful in disputing leading discourses. Even though sustaining the leading theories about femininity and masculinity, Cole overturns characters and persuades her audiences, through reference, to challenge their own beliefs (Thacker & Webb 2002). Cole’s picture books regarding sex and puberty also have the ability to astound teachers and parents, thus suggesting to the young audiences of the books a rebellious sense of influence over authority. Picture books, in other ways, require a more involved, ‘writerly’ commitment from their audiences through postmodern storytelling techniques (Grenby 2009). John Burningham’s Come Away from the Water, Shirley (1977) or Grandpa (1984), provides a diversity of narratives which can link in several ways (Thacker & Webb 2002). The meaning is passed to the child as a reader without a major controlling authorial discussion. When, at the last part of Grandpa, the depiction of the chair upsets our anticipations of conclusion, the reader should understand, for her/himself, an individual interpretation (Thacker & Webb 2002). This could be more problematic and less reassuring than authorial influence, but it is more cultivating, persuading the reader to express a personal belief. Likewise, in Come Away from the Water, Shirley, the story of the piratical journeys of Shirley conflicts with the almost bland story of the monologue of her mother and the experience of her parents (Lundin 2004). The reader should understand the multifaceted structure of the work and the connection between the stories. The reading experience is made unusual and either story can lead. Even though some readers will be engaged in the relating of the wordless story, others will discern the oppressive character of the mother’s authority the most dominant illustration of current life (Lundin 2004). The confusing of the dividing line between the adult and child readers is also apparent in the trend of the omnipresent J.K. Rowling, writer of Harry Potter. Although one may understand the decision of her clever publishers to release both adult and children’s versions as a pessimistic marketing tactic, the popularity of Rowling with adults indicates a manifestation of the postmodern period (Lundin 2004). Her Harry Potter books offer an array of interesting adventures and provide a narrative expression that is reassuring and manipulative at the same time. In several instances, the books of Rowling depend on the core ideas that are questioned by postmodern views. The valiant Bildungsroman lacks satirical double-voicing and, aside from the special feature in the first book, gives no chances for a dynamic involvement with the writer (Thacker & Webb 2002). Even though the volumes have become gloomier as Harry matures, the fight between good and evil and the self-assured voice of the author appears to depend on a Romantic view of the young audience as naive, but in need of manipulative stories (Thacker & Webb 2002). Moreover, the power of the reputation of her volumes with adults reveals an aspiration to go back to this connection to imaginary text, which is less dynamic and hence less provoking. Instead of carnivalising the adventure story and the school tale, Rowling recognises and hence provides readers a respite from the subversive and liberal (Lundin 2004). Although parents, booksellers, and columnists celebrate the fact that youngsters are reading, it should be recognised that the Harry Potter series conceive a reader who needs comfort in a challenging world, instead of a reader eager to make his/her own meaning (Lundin 2004). The exercise of the carnivalesque to voice out an opposition to manipulative stories and the open encouragement of a large number of contemporary children’s literature, depend on the insight of a reader who will read the book with a naturally ‘naive’ reaction (Beckett 2001). It is the anti-elitist, pre-social features of Bakhtin’s concept of the carnivalesque which shows it important to children’s books (Brooker 1992). The dares tendered by mass cultural types to leading and influential discourses are common in the creations of numerous authors. An authorial commitment to the language and the indication of a capability to understand shows a Romantic awareness that involves the feminine, sources of creativity, and the imaginary, and hence revolutionises the supremacy of patriarchy (Moebius 2009). Realising through narrative seems to be, throughout history, a vital ability and a central aspiration, but it is the ontological ambiguity of modern society which makes this aspiration more important (Grenby 2009). The strength of ‘play and reconciliation’ in postmodernism is apparently expressed throughout the development of children’s literature (Thacker & Webb 2002). The feminine, motherly origins of children’s literature can be viewed to change and develop in reaction to social realities, but they sustain and grow a sense of opposition to manipulative and leading power relations and can hence be regarded a supporter to postmodernist reactions to the modern society and culture. Throughout the power of the dominant masculine works of the 19th century, these origins preserved their power and found voice in children’s literature, usually as a dispute to the traditions of elite realism (Lundin 2004). In spite of a steady loss of self-esteem in the authorial stance as interpreter of realities and power, these texts were, essentially, dissident and support the subversive inclination of art. The rather marginalised position of children’s literature and its intimate ties with the feminine and maternal may have hid its essence as a destabilising factor, but the shattering of cultural frontiers, encouraged by theory of post-structuralism (Beckett 2001), has enabled the absolute power of these texts to be recognised. Conclusions The techniques which we currently label as postmodern are known to audiences of picture books, both adults and children, throughout its development, but it is just recently that we can see the essential function of that literature: to sustain a right to question the authoritarian expression which aim to oppress and manipulate. Several scholars refer to the reality that literary authors were greatly motivated by the literatures they read as youngsters, and it is possibly the capability of literary works to either invade or emancipate that defines that influence. As our understanding of the role of these narratives transforms, so our understanding of the influence of story sharing is modified from confidence surrounding the role of the author to recognition of the power of the audience. This change in perception of power in the relationship between author and reader, vital to the creation of children’s books as a style, requires an understanding of the means where in the texts created for children voice that wanting for narratives that unfetter. References Brooker, P. (1992) Modernism/Postmodernism. London: Longman. Beckett, S. (2001) ' Paradoic PLay with Paintings in Picture Books' in Lennox Keyser, E. and Pfeiffer, J. (eds) Children's Literature, 29. London. Yale University Press, pp 175-195. Browne, A. (1999 [1998[) Voices in the Park. London: Picture Corgi.  Goldstone, B (2009) ' Postmodern Experiments' in Maybin, J and Watson, N.J. (eds) Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 320-29  Grenby, M. (2009) Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan pp.296-299.  Lundin, A. (2004) Constructing the Canon of Children’s Literature: Beyond Library Walls and Ivory Towers. New York: Routledge. Moebius, W. (2009) 'Picturebook Codes' In Maybin, J and Watson, N.J. (eds) Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories. Basingstoke, Plagrave MacMillian. pp.311-320.  Thacker, D.C. & Webb, J. (2002) Introducing Children’s Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism. New York: Routledge. Whalley, J. (2009)' Taxts and Pictures: A history' in Maybin J. and Watson, N.J. (eds) Children's Literature: Approaches and Territories. Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillian, pp299-310.  Read More