Exit Children Excerpt

Exit Children's Literature?
Maria Nikolajeva
From: The Lion and the Unicorn
Volume 22, Number 2, April 1998
pp. 221-236 | 10.1353/uni.1998.0028
In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:
The Lion and the Unicorn 22.2 (1998) 221-236
I would like to start my discussion of contemporary trends in international children's fiction with a quick
reiteration of some common prejudices about children's literature, maintained not only by its
adversaries but even by its most ardent supporters.
In his book The Pleasures of Children's Literature, Perry Nodelman enumerates several features that
in his eyes characterize children's literature:
simple but not necessarily simplistic
action-oriented rather than character-oriented
presented from the viewpoint of innocence
optimistic and with happy endings
didactic
repetitious in diction and structure (190).
At first glance, most of us will certainly agree. However, if we take a more thorough look at some
renowned contemporary children's authors -- the British Alan Garner, Aidan Chambers, or Diana
Wynne Jones; the Americans Robert Cormier or Patricia MacLachlan; the New Zealander Margaret
Mahy; the South African Lesley Beake; the Swede Peter Pohl; the Norwegian Tormod Haugen; the
German Michael Ende; the French Michel Tournier; and the Russian Radi Pogodin -- we see that,
given the above characteristics, none of their works would fit into the definition of children's literature. I
have deliberately chosen examples from different national literatures in order to demonstrate that the
phenomenon I am going to discuss is indeed not limited to any particular country or language. When
confronted with these writers, we must either admit that they do not write for children -- which some of
them have declared they do not, although their books are marketed as books for children -- or re-
define our notion of children's literature.
My thesis is that an ever-growing segment of contemporary children's literature is transgressing its
own boundaries, coming closer to mainstream literature, and exhibiting the most prominent features of
postmodernism, such as genre eclecticism, disintegration of traditional narrative structures, polyphony,
intersubjectivity, and metafiction (see Nikolajeva, "Haugen"; Children's Literature). None of these
features is normally associated with children's literature.
Let us start with the statement that children's literature is simple. It is challenging to define a "simple"
narrative, but the different aspects of simplicity should involve both story (what is narrated) and
discourse (how it is narrated). The criteria for a "simple" story might be concrete and familiar subject
matter; clear distinction between genres and text-types (adventure story, family story, school story);
one single, clearly delineated plot without digressions or secondary plots; chronological order of
events; a limited number of characters who are easy to remember; "flat" characters -- that is,
characters composed basically of one typical feature to whom can be readily ascribed either the
quality "good" or "evil"; closed characters who are easy to understand from their actions and speech;
settings familiar to children such as the nursery, home, school, playground, summer camp, etc.
The criteria for simplicity of discourse would be a distinct narrative voice; a fixed point of view --
preferably an authoritarian, didactic, extradiegetic narrator who can supply the young reader with
comments, explanations, and exhortations without leaving anything unuttered or ambiguous; a
narrator possessing larger knowledge and experience than either the characters or the readers.
Complex temporal and spatial relations are excluded. Naturally, the verisimilitude of the story, the
reliability of the narrator, or the sufficiency of language as the artistic expressive means cannot be
questioned.
Obviously, most of these criteria match traditional children's literature as well as much of what is
written and published as children's literature today. However, let us contemplate what some
contemporary children's writers offer their readers.
Traditionally, certain subjects, characters, and settings are believed to be suitable for children; for
example, the abundance of animals and toys in children's books is particularly striking. However, if we
regard these figures as metaphorical representations of the weak and the oppressed or as the child's
projections of his or her own desires, we should not be misled by the outer form. The death of a pet in
a children's book may just as well be a disguised depiction of the death of a close relative; the trials of
a doll may be a camouflaged story of a child's suppressed fear of his or her own sexuality...
Not an Exit but a Shift: Changing Childrens Literature (MLA, Vancouver,
January 5-8, 2015 / Deadline: March 1, 2014)
full name / name of organization:
Modern Language Association
contact email:
[email protected], [email protected]
In her 1998 article Exit Childrens Literature? Maria Nikolajeva meditates on
contemporary trends in the childrens genre and closes with the statement that we must
acknowledge that, sooner or later, children's literature will be integrated into the
mainstream and disappear. This panel responds to the question of her title, but it focuses
less on the idea of a disappearance or death, and more on a reimagining of the childrens
genre. In this way, we work from Nikolajevas earlier suggestion that we must re-define
our notion of children's literature. With this in mind, we invite papers that address the
ways turn-of-the-twenty-first-century childrens texts have shifted to accommodate and
reflect a contemporary childhood through changes in aesthetics, mediums, genres, and/or
ideologies.
Papers that acknowledge and detail new frameworks for understanding the genre (as
opposed to using the label of exit or death) will be given special consideration. We
strongly encourage papers to keep Nikolajevas work in mind; while it is not necessary to
directly engage this piece, familiarity with her argument, and other similar arguments
about the possible end of childrens literature, is a strength.
Topic suggestions include, but are not limited to:
Changing aesthetics in childrens pictorial art
Ethics of identity and a twenty-first century ideological inclusion
The emergence and influence of new ALA awards, such as the Pura Belpr and Stonewall
Book Awards
Changing constructions of childhood and corresponding cultural experiences of the
twenty-first century child
Depictions of a realistic twenty-first century and its complicated childhoods
Historical comparisons and contextual understandings of the child across the genre
The effects of new media on childrens literature and childrens culture
The emergence of a clearly marketed pre-adolescent middle grade genre and a New
Adult genre
Analyses of new genre features, literary and cultural
Please submit 500-word abstracts to Ramona Caponegro ([email protected]) and Abbie
Ventura ([email protected]) by March 1.
This panel is sponsored by the Childrens Literature Association but is not guaranteed. The
2015 MLA conference will be held in Vancouver, January 5-8.

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