Childrens Literature on War in Australia - Essay Example

Name Student Affiliation Date Children’s Literature Introduction Societies, nations and cultures use children’s literature as the major technique to inculcate children with their beliefs, values and collective memory. The main theme that tends to increasingly run through most of Australian children’s literature is war. In Australia, children texts on war have been used to describe, disseminate and maintain specific viewpoints about military history. The central themes found in children’s book include the ANZAC legend, deification of war and belligerence, gender roles and depiction of the rival. Nevertheless, the dissemination and insurrection of these themes in the last two decades have waved a gradual development in the field of children’s literature. The way war is represented to children is principally relevant to the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli’s centenary as well as to the inauguration of the campaign that produced the ANZAC legend1. This paper will explore the way the Australia’s World War I have been presented in children’s literature and examine how these forms of presentation has changed with time. Moreover, this paper will analyse whether these presentations are simply perpetuating myths. Australian children’s books on war suffered a major deficiency during the period between early and mid-20th century. There were few war stories for children following First World War which were mainly drawn from adult literatures like The ANZAC Book, which consisted of a collection of sarcastic stories, illustrations and poems produced by ANZAC armed forces at Gallipoli in the year 19162. During this period, Australia depended largely on children’s literature imported from Britain given the fact that publishing only took place overseas3. There was high demand for these literatures in Australia forcing a number of libraries to publish requests in local newspapers asking for donations of children’s texts4. However, this effort was not fruitful as at the end of First World War just a few books written in Australia were in the market. To make it worse, only a few were written for children and none talked about the war5. A collection of war legends for children in Australia remained limited up to the middle of 1990s. The increase of war books for children during the 90s led to a several challenges about fact versus myth in Australian historiography. The emergence of fiction in children’s literature on war ignited debate as regard whether historical accuracy has to be sacrificed for instructive or entertainment purposes. Examples of children’s literatures that provide such fragmented ideas of history tend to confuse children include ‘The Bantam and the Soldier’ produced by Jennifer Becks in 997 and ‘Gallipoli Nurse’ produced by John Lockyer in 19986. Children’s literature on war has turned out to be largely dependent on the prior knowledge of young reader, thus raising the need for grown-ups to act as mediators between the young reader and the literature. This reliance can be explained by the degree to which the ANZAC legend pervades the national and social fabric of Australia7. Apart from requiring the guidance of adults, children’s literature on war has also been substantially controlled by adults, in particular in depiction of war and patriotism as being intimately intertwined. The ANZAC legend can be said to be behind this deification of war and hostility. The image on the cover page of ‘The ANZAC Book’ has turned out to be the benchmark for depicting the stereotypically Australian soldier8. Moreover, this image plus the figure 2 in the book by Glyn Harper ‘The Sky Soldiers’ and figure 3 in the book by Dianne Wolfer ‘Photographs in the Mud’ show how the depiction of the ANZAC myth has come to be identical with symbols of maleness as they depict the ANZAZ soldier as being white, tall, sturdy and able-bodied9. Moreover, the tactical positioning of rifles as well as the utilization of low-angle gunshot solidifies the hero type as makes the soldier look extraordinary big10. The dissemination of this picture in children’s literature successfully overlooks persons, who fail to meet this standard like injured and limbless troupers, aboriginal soldiers, diverse cultural groups and people of different age groups. As a result, children’s literature has served a significant role in defining as well as disseminating the ANZA myth through associating it with concepts of war, heroism and masculinity. Picture in ‘The ANZAC Book’ Picture in the book ‘Sky Soldiers’ Picture in the book ‘Photography in the mud’ The depiction of gender roles during war has resulted in the emergence of a gendered irreconcilable difference between lethargic women and dynamic men in children’s literature. Most children’s literature has focused on the fierceness, sacrifice and escapades of the war experiences of men whereas they paid little attention to women. The few texts that attempt to recognise the war experiences of women tend to basically limit their acknowledgement to aspects like child-rearing and rationing that situate women decisively in the home domain. Although nurses are sporadically mentioned, the crucial role of weaponries workers, the Women’s Land Army and sensor operators among others are rarely mentioned11. This narrow description of the role of women in war presents young readers with a perception of war as a man dominated domain and depicts women as playing insignificant role in war as portrayed by Brown and Warner in their book Lone Pine using figure 412. Tonkin in her book ‘what was the War Like, Grandma?’ also portray women as being confined to domestic chores during war time using figure 513 while Wolfer and Harrison-lever in figure 6 depicts women as being behind the main reason men were at war, to protect them14. These representations portray accurate historiography as well as disseminate alleged gendered binaries between militaries and citizens as well as between women and men. In recent times, there has been a shift in the representation of the opponent in children’s literature on war whereby the enemy is now perceived as a worthy foe rather than the wicked, faceless ruthless guy as it has been in the past15. The deliberate depictions of the opponent have been successful in assigning ANZAC armies high moral status in military history. Most of children’s war literatures are pervaded with images of the evil, wicked and immoral opponent with dark colours and sharp lines often used to help young readers to different between an enemy and a good person. A perfect example of text in which this binary is manifest includes ‘The Sky Soldiers’ produced written by Glyn Harper in 200516. This text talk about the German attack on Crete and it depicts the Sky soldiers as anti-heroes who harass children and old women while on the contrary; it depicts the ANZAC soldiers as honourable defenders. But recently a gap has risen between texts that represent the evil opponent and those that represent the worthy foe. Although compassion for opponent losses is often overlooked, texts by Wolfer and Harrison-lever17 and by Hill and Colston18 highlight the collective humanity of war enemies. The aim of these texts is to disseminate a didactic message as regard the horrors of war, death and the individual foe who cannot be classified as an enemy. However, these two books fail to describe the historical background and the purposes for engaging in war when delivering this didactic message. All the same, the ANZAC soldiers still maintain a high moral status in these two books regardless of whether the foe is depicted as worthy or evil. The memorial of the ANZAC day in Australia is highly valued. Thus, the greatest challenge facing authors of children’s war literatures entails designing book that encourage children to participate this celebratory event. The books written by Hoy and Johnson and by Kane and Allen are ideal examples of such texts. Hoy and Johnson focus more on traditions and ritual but does not tell us what is being commemorated or the reasons behind it19. Conversely, Kane and Allen provide us with a distinct difference between ritual and realism as it contrasts the grand vision of a bright-eyed boy about war and the torment of a veteran20. These two books purport to boost the appreciation of children as regard the remembrance of the ANZAC day; however, the variations in these two texts show how challenging it is to convey anguish and terror of war to children in a manner that is in line with the national war mythology. Most Australian children’s war texts are nation-centric in nature, meaning that they hardly deviate from the creation of legend and ANZAC ritual of the white Australia. Examples of such books include those written by Brown and Warner21, Wilson22 and Jorgensen and Harrison-level23. In Australia, authors of children’s book have become quite captivated in nationalist historiography to the extent that they appear to overlook the definition of the term ANZAC. This exclusion shows that popular memory is superior to factual accounts in Australian historiography. It also illustrates the role of prejudice in the dissemination of national mythologies and hostility24. The importance Australian attach to the Exodus story in has resulted in the prioritizing of history with the First World war, the ANZAC legend and male domination in war taking precedence in children’s literature. Australian history is based in narrative whereby Australians are depicted as people experiencing hardship. This explains why the ANZAC myth has turned out to be a transnational icon. Celebrating such an account in national memory aids in validating defeats as well as warranting future action in a way that exclude others. This has led to the lack as well as silenced voices of many important individuals in the war literature of children. The fractional illustrations of war history can be attributed to the attempts of Howard to detract focus from the 1990s’ history of war. As a result, authors have meritoriously absented official as well as private histories from texts meant for children. Moreover, the experiences of Aboriginal Australians, hostages of war, the account of home-front units and the role of subaltern groups, such as Chinese, Russian and German ANZACs have been ignored. However, recent books such as ‘A Day to Remember’25 and ‘My Grandfather’s War’26 tend to be more inclusive when documenting war history. Conclusion Children’s literature on war has been used the main vehicle for disseminating war history to children in Australia. However, this dissemination has not taken place in large scale and has not been inclusive. In addition, it has depended on white description and legends. Traditional notions of the opponent, nationalism and masculinity have played a significant role in maintaining the ANZAC myth. Although some recent books have demonstrated a shift to transnational and inclusive histories, most children’s books still focus on the ANZAC myth. Despite these shortcomings, children’s literature is the main technique used to educate children about war history and hence is seen as a vehicle for passing the beliefs, values and tradition of Australian communities from one generation to the next. Future authors of children’s books in Australia can avoid perpetuating exclusive and mythologised accounts of war and ANZAC history by reconciling themselves with the reality of the history of their nation as well as find out how to celebrate those who participated and lost their lives in war without appearing to commemorate war itself. References Ann Curthoys, ‘Expulsion, Exodus and Exile in White Australian Historical Mythology,’ Journal of Australian Studies 23(61): 1999. Catriona Hoy and Benjamin Johnson, My Grandad Marches on ANZAC Day. Sydney: Hachette Australia, 2005. Clark, Anna, History’s Children: History Wars in the Classroom, Sydney, New South, 2008, pp. 43-63 David Hill and Fifi Colston, The Red Poppy. Gosford: Scholastic Australia, 2012. Dianne Wolfer and Brian Harrison-Lever, Photographs in the Mud. Perth: Fremantle Press, 2005, 1-4 Gerster, Robin, Big Noting: The Heroic Theme in Australian War Writing, Melbourne University Press 1987, chapters 1 and 2 Glenda Kane and Lisa Allen, ANZAC Day Parade. Rosedale: Puffin Books, 2010. Glyn Harper, My Grandfather’s War (Auckland: Reed Publishing, 2007) Glynn Harper and Warren Mahy, The Sky Soldiers. Auckland: Reed Children’s Books, 2005, 20-22 Jackie French and Mark Wilson, A Day to Remember: The Story of ANZAC Day (Sydney: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012. Lake, Marilyn, and Reynolds, Henry, What’s Wrong with Anzac?, Sydney, University of NSW Press, 2010. Mark Wilson, My Mother’s Eyes: The Story of an Australian Boy Soldier. Sydney: Hachette Australia, 2009. Norman Jorgensen and Brian Harrison-Lever, In Flanders Fields (Fremantle: Fremantle Press, 2002 Rachel Tonkin, What Was the War Like, Grandma?: Emmy Remembers World War II. Sydney: Walker Books Australia, 1995. Sara Buttsworth, ‘From Bedpans to Bulldogs: “Lottie: Gallipoli Nurse” and the Pitfalls of Presenting War to the Young,’ in Maartje Abbenhuis and Sara Buttsworth (eds.), Restaging War in the Western World: Non-Combatant Experiences, 1890 – Today. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 146. Susie Brown and Margaret Warner, Lone Pine (Melbourne: Little Hare Books, 2012). Read More