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Anthony Browne as Risk Taker: Humanizing Images
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From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 14:51:26 -0500
In the ACHUKA interview reference by K.T. Horning earlier, the interviewer asked Anthony Browne when he drew his first primate and Browne responded that since humans are primates, it was probably one of the first things he ever drew. He went on to describe when he drew his first gorilla.
His response to that question, which I don't think was meant to be be flip, brings up something I find interesting in Anthony Browne's books that feature (non-human) primates: they offer glimpses of our (human) condition that are heightened, at least for me, by the use of these non-human characters that aren't cute and charming or warm and fuzzy. I don't necessarily find this in stories featuring bunnies or bears or other animals--I might enjoy those stories and of course see the characters as representative of human relationships and emotions, but I don't always feel that it is a more acute representation as I do with Browne's work
I'm thinking particularly of Voices in the Park, where the use of the gorillas somehow make these very distinct characters stand out as individuals who are all too human. If those characters had been portrayed visually as humans, I think there would have been more of a tendency for myself as a reader, and perhaps for otehrs, to either identify with or distance oneself from particular characters in the narrative. Instead, I find myself examining each character for the universality of what he or she represents--what does this individual'a actions say about ourselves and our society?
Interestingly, when Anthony Browne spoke at the IBBY Regional Conference here in Madison, he talked about how these characters did start out as human. Voices in the Park was the outcome of Browne revisiting an earlier book he did titled A Walk in the Park (published in the U.K.) That book featured human characters. As he developed Voices in the Park and worked with the varying points of view, he discovered that in changing the representation from human to gorilla, the characters did indeed become more human to him. (As Ginny Moore Kruse wrote at the beginning of the month, you can view Anthony Browne's presentation at the IBBY Regional Conference in Madison on the CCBC web site at http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/webcast.htm#browne.)
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 14 Jun 2000 02:51:26 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 14:51:26 -0500
In the ACHUKA interview reference by K.T. Horning earlier, the interviewer asked Anthony Browne when he drew his first primate and Browne responded that since humans are primates, it was probably one of the first things he ever drew. He went on to describe when he drew his first gorilla.
His response to that question, which I don't think was meant to be be flip, brings up something I find interesting in Anthony Browne's books that feature (non-human) primates: they offer glimpses of our (human) condition that are heightened, at least for me, by the use of these non-human characters that aren't cute and charming or warm and fuzzy. I don't necessarily find this in stories featuring bunnies or bears or other animals--I might enjoy those stories and of course see the characters as representative of human relationships and emotions, but I don't always feel that it is a more acute representation as I do with Browne's work
I'm thinking particularly of Voices in the Park, where the use of the gorillas somehow make these very distinct characters stand out as individuals who are all too human. If those characters had been portrayed visually as humans, I think there would have been more of a tendency for myself as a reader, and perhaps for otehrs, to either identify with or distance oneself from particular characters in the narrative. Instead, I find myself examining each character for the universality of what he or she represents--what does this individual'a actions say about ourselves and our society?
Interestingly, when Anthony Browne spoke at the IBBY Regional Conference here in Madison, he talked about how these characters did start out as human. Voices in the Park was the outcome of Browne revisiting an earlier book he did titled A Walk in the Park (published in the U.K.) That book featured human characters. As he developed Voices in the Park and worked with the varying points of view, he discovered that in changing the representation from human to gorilla, the characters did indeed become more human to him. (As Ginny Moore Kruse wrote at the beginning of the month, you can view Anthony Browne's presentation at the IBBY Regional Conference in Madison on the CCBC web site at http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/webcast.htm#browne.)
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 14 Jun 2000 02:51:26 PM CDT
