Reading & Responding to Contemporary Picture Books Children’s Literature

View Rapunzel What motifs & patterns do you see in this fairy tale?

Motifs & Patterns Archetypal characters Protagonist – Antagonist Hero – Heroine Villain the maiden, the hag/crone/witch/wise woman the Fool, the “Third Brother/Son/Sister” …others?

Magical helpers Animal Old man/woman …others?

Plot Hero’s journey: a quest, obstacles to overcome, test of strength etc.. linear or circular Joseph Campbell: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Hero’s Journey Linear Journey Circular Journey

Settings Symbolism: Magical elements Binaries: forest=danger/mystery Magical elements Binaries: light/dark, good/evil Settings: generic [forest, palace, castle, cottage in the woods etc…]

What’s the point in identifying all these elements? Some scholars would argue that ALL stories essentially contain variation s of these elements. If we recognize the “original” then when we come across variations or adaptations… we see something familiar, make predictions, make connections construct meaning WE are going to read postmodern picture books which break the traditional canon!

Intertextuality & Postmodern Literature

Traditional Tales In The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Maria Tatar writes: “For all their rich variety, fairy tales have a remarkably stable – and therefore predictable – structure. […] The cast of folkloric characters is remarkably limited when compared to that of literature, and the plots in which the characters of folktales more unfold in a relatively uniform manner” (xxiix) “For many adults, reading through an unexpurgated edition of the Grimms’ collection of tales can be an eye-opening experience. Even those who know that Snow White’s stepmother arranges the murder of her stepdaughter, that doves peck out the eyes of Cinderella’s stepsisters, that Briar Rose’s suitors bleed to death on the hedge surrounding her castle, or that a mad rage drives Rumpelstiltskin to tear himself in two will find themselves hardly prepared for the graphic descriptions of murder, mutilation, cannibalism, infanticide, and incest that fill the pages of these bedtime stories for children” (3).

The New American Canon: Rainbow Literature Multicultural literature Social Realism, Historical Fiction Real/Implied/Ideal Reader Aesthetic vs. Efferent reading Dual narrative: visual & verbal text Authenticity Accuracy Cultural appropriation Stereotype vs. Cultural convention Perspective: Insider vs. Outsider voice Subjectivity Authorial perspective Narrative perspective [1st person, 3rd person, omniscient]

Schools of Literary Criticism: Black Aesthetics – Black Arts Movement of the 1960s; Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s Minority Criticism – emerged out of the 1960s civil rights ere Magical Realism– Latino/a, Hispanic literature New Historicism Awards: Pura Belpre Award Coretta Scott King Award Refer to www.ala.org!

Activity 3 Using the terms generated as a class read a picture book and discuss: What traditional patterns or motifs are embedded in the text/illustration? What is familiar & unfamiliar? What connections can you make to other stories, books, films? Why might your book be described as “postmodern”? What might this mean?