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Re: sexuality and books in the curriculum
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From: Lyn Miller-Lachmann <lynml_at_me.com>
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 20:33:16 -0400
Your dilemma regarding the sexual violence in House of the Spirits (just an educated guess here) raises additional questions when we talk about both historical fiction and international/multicultural books written by insiders. Most child lit scholars today criticize historical fiction written with modern day sensibilities that sanitize the well documented social relations of the times; for instance stories set in the Middle Ages with anachronistically feminist protagonists.
International writers depicting their own cultures, on the other hand, cannot be expected to conform to the sensibilities of potential readers halfway around the globe, and certainly not readers 30 or 40 years hence. House of the Spirits is a story rooted in a time and place where that kind of sexual violence was the norm. It is not the norm (though it still unfortunately exists) in Chile today, and it is sadly widespread in other parts of Latin America. Brazil, for instance, has struggled with this problem in a highly public way recently.
The problem with assigning books like Allende's as summer reading is that few teens and their parents in the U.S. have the context to understand sexual violence in a region that for more than five centuries has experienced conquest, violent dispossession, authoritarianism and state-sponsored violence, and extreme inequality. Assigning these books within a class unit (as was done in my son's school) and presenting these contextual factors may offer a variety of teachable moments, not the least of which is that the growing violence and inequality we face in our own country has far reaching consequences.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009) Rogue (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2013) www.lynmillerlachmann.com www.thepiratetree.com
Sent from my iPhone
> On Mar 9, 2014, at 7:19 PM, Rosanne Parry <rosanneparry_at_comcast.net>
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Received on Sun 09 Mar 2014 08:00:41 PM CDT
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 20:33:16 -0400
Your dilemma regarding the sexual violence in House of the Spirits (just an educated guess here) raises additional questions when we talk about both historical fiction and international/multicultural books written by insiders. Most child lit scholars today criticize historical fiction written with modern day sensibilities that sanitize the well documented social relations of the times; for instance stories set in the Middle Ages with anachronistically feminist protagonists.
International writers depicting their own cultures, on the other hand, cannot be expected to conform to the sensibilities of potential readers halfway around the globe, and certainly not readers 30 or 40 years hence. House of the Spirits is a story rooted in a time and place where that kind of sexual violence was the norm. It is not the norm (though it still unfortunately exists) in Chile today, and it is sadly widespread in other parts of Latin America. Brazil, for instance, has struggled with this problem in a highly public way recently.
The problem with assigning books like Allende's as summer reading is that few teens and their parents in the U.S. have the context to understand sexual violence in a region that for more than five centuries has experienced conquest, violent dispossession, authoritarianism and state-sponsored violence, and extreme inequality. Assigning these books within a class unit (as was done in my son's school) and presenting these contextual factors may offer a variety of teachable moments, not the least of which is that the growing violence and inequality we face in our own country has far reaching consequences.
Lyn Miller-Lachmann Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009) Rogue (Nancy Paulsen Books/Penguin, 2013) www.lynmillerlachmann.com www.thepiratetree.com
Sent from my iPhone
> On Mar 9, 2014, at 7:19 PM, Rosanne Parry <rosanneparry_at_comcast.net>
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Received on Sun 09 Mar 2014 08:00:41 PM CDT
