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Tomi Ungerer
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From: lhendr at unm.edu <lhendr>
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 19:35:51 -0600 (MDT)
It is time to begin the discussion of 1998 Hans Christian Andersen winner of the award for illustration, Tomi Ungerer. Some of us began discussing Ungerer during the earlier discussion on author autobiographies, since his childhood memoirs, "Tomi: A Childhood Under the Nazis" was finally published in English in 1998. Ungerer was born in 1938 in Alsace, a land that has been a battleground for centuries, largely because of its position on the border of France and Germany. It was in an Alsace controlled by the Nazis in which Ungerer grew up with a keen understanding of what it is to be an outsider, never fully belonging in either France or Germany, and belonging to a culture little understood by the outside world.
He concludes "Tomi" with the following: "I learned to transfuse my fear, insecuirty, and anger into my work-trauma can fuel talent, if you have any. The pragmatic vision that I developed, concerning the good and evil in myself and in others, has no definite borderlines. I learned from relativity, which is food for doubt, and doubt is a virtue with enough living space for every imperfect, sin-ridden life-loving creature on Earth.
Many of Ungerer's picture books for children have been controversial, and they contain many strange semi-hidden images that some adults do not consider appropriate for children. I suggest that we open the Ungerer discussion by sharing responses--our own and those of children we know to some of Ungerer's picture books. We might want to think about how his wartime childhood may have influenced his picture books.
I have more questions and more observations for later, but I hope this will get us started in a lively discussion of this most interesting author and illustrator.
Linnea
Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, New Mexico Children's Literature: A Guide to the Criticism (1987) at: http://www.unm.edu/~lhendr Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Tue 03 Aug 1999 08:35:51 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 19:35:51 -0600 (MDT)
It is time to begin the discussion of 1998 Hans Christian Andersen winner of the award for illustration, Tomi Ungerer. Some of us began discussing Ungerer during the earlier discussion on author autobiographies, since his childhood memoirs, "Tomi: A Childhood Under the Nazis" was finally published in English in 1998. Ungerer was born in 1938 in Alsace, a land that has been a battleground for centuries, largely because of its position on the border of France and Germany. It was in an Alsace controlled by the Nazis in which Ungerer grew up with a keen understanding of what it is to be an outsider, never fully belonging in either France or Germany, and belonging to a culture little understood by the outside world.
He concludes "Tomi" with the following: "I learned to transfuse my fear, insecuirty, and anger into my work-trauma can fuel talent, if you have any. The pragmatic vision that I developed, concerning the good and evil in myself and in others, has no definite borderlines. I learned from relativity, which is food for doubt, and doubt is a virtue with enough living space for every imperfect, sin-ridden life-loving creature on Earth.
Many of Ungerer's picture books for children have been controversial, and they contain many strange semi-hidden images that some adults do not consider appropriate for children. I suggest that we open the Ungerer discussion by sharing responses--our own and those of children we know to some of Ungerer's picture books. We might want to think about how his wartime childhood may have influenced his picture books.
I have more questions and more observations for later, but I hope this will get us started in a lively discussion of this most interesting author and illustrator.
Linnea
Linnea Hendrickson Albuquerque, New Mexico Children's Literature: A Guide to the Criticism (1987) at: http://www.unm.edu/~lhendr Lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Tue 03 Aug 1999 08:35:51 PM CDT
