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Re: The Summer Prince -- lots of thoughts (a few on sex, most on location)
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From: Debbie Reese <dreese.nambe_at_gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 06:44:28 -0500
Sarah wondered about de-centering a narrative that centers on a main character with privilege.
Malinda responded by pointing to the way she is trying to do that in her books. I'm glad for Sarah's question, and for Malinda's response. These are great things to think about!
And hard, too, because of that thing in the U.S. called "The American Dream" that calls upon individuality and individualism. The idea that success is due to the heroic efforts of an individual who does things like "pull him/herself up by her bootstraps" but which I view as rhetoric that obscures a whole lot of things in society that makes it possible for some people to achieve "the American Dream" while others who do not are called lazy. It need not be "the American Dream" -- there's other things, too, but they are draped with that hero narrative, too.
Case in point is the children's books about Rosa Parks and the myth (I initially wrote narrative and wanted to show my thought process in which I'd strike out narrative and replace it with myth, but that would likely show up as a bunch of question marks rather than what I was getting at) that she was a poor tired seamstress. That sort of myth making works against the idea of community, and community response to injustice. It reinforces/reifies the hero and the American Dream ideology, too.
I'm not finished with SUMMER PRINCE yet, but reading CCBC posts about it, I think a question I might pose is how/if the author thought about community versus individual as she mapped out the story. And privilege, too. How did she think through that?
Closing by returning to Sarah's question about decentering. How much do people de-center themselves when they read? The act of reading from a de-centered position is akin to reading against the grain.
Debbie
Debbie Reese, PhD Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo
Email: dreese.nambe_at_gmail.com Twitter: debreese
Website: American Indians in Children's Literature
_at_ http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net
Now: Studying for MLIS at San Jose State University Then: Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies, University of Illinois
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Received on Thu 20 Mar 2014 06:51:27 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 06:44:28 -0500
Sarah wondered about de-centering a narrative that centers on a main character with privilege.
Malinda responded by pointing to the way she is trying to do that in her books. I'm glad for Sarah's question, and for Malinda's response. These are great things to think about!
And hard, too, because of that thing in the U.S. called "The American Dream" that calls upon individuality and individualism. The idea that success is due to the heroic efforts of an individual who does things like "pull him/herself up by her bootstraps" but which I view as rhetoric that obscures a whole lot of things in society that makes it possible for some people to achieve "the American Dream" while others who do not are called lazy. It need not be "the American Dream" -- there's other things, too, but they are draped with that hero narrative, too.
Case in point is the children's books about Rosa Parks and the myth (I initially wrote narrative and wanted to show my thought process in which I'd strike out narrative and replace it with myth, but that would likely show up as a bunch of question marks rather than what I was getting at) that she was a poor tired seamstress. That sort of myth making works against the idea of community, and community response to injustice. It reinforces/reifies the hero and the American Dream ideology, too.
I'm not finished with SUMMER PRINCE yet, but reading CCBC posts about it, I think a question I might pose is how/if the author thought about community versus individual as she mapped out the story. And privilege, too. How did she think through that?
Closing by returning to Sarah's question about decentering. How much do people de-center themselves when they read? The act of reading from a de-centered position is akin to reading against the grain.
Debbie
Debbie Reese, PhD Tribally enrolled: Nambe Pueblo
Email: dreese.nambe_at_gmail.com Twitter: debreese
Website: American Indians in Children's Literature
_at_ http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.net
Now: Studying for MLIS at San Jose State University Then: Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies, University of Illinois
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Received on Thu 20 Mar 2014 06:51:27 AM CDT
