Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature
by Alison Lurie
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A collection of essays on great children's literature that relates the lives of the authors to the works themselves.Tags
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Read in one sitting and late into the night because it was SO MCUH FUN, although, yes, uneven, and difficult to follow in places if one hasn't read the original books. Children's literature (Lurie says) runs under the radar, and the authors of children's literature often possess the same attribute, being commonly women; they are able to critique the social world, the world of adulthood, in a way that only outsiders can do.
They are able to get away it because they are only women, and their stories are only for children, and no one notices that the weak people in the fairy tales are men, and the powerful people -- for good or evil -- are women and children. Kind-hearted or wicked, they are nevertheless clever and innovative. They take show more risks. They talk back. They get what they want. (I fucking love children's literature.)
She says a lot of other good stuff, too; I don't agree with everything, but most of it is well-considered. SO MUCH FUN. show less
They are able to get away it because they are only women, and their stories are only for children, and no one notices that the weak people in the fairy tales are men, and the powerful people -- for good or evil -- are women and children. Kind-hearted or wicked, they are nevertheless clever and innovative. They take show more risks. They talk back. They get what they want. (I fucking love children's literature.)
She says a lot of other good stuff, too; I don't agree with everything, but most of it is well-considered. SO MUCH FUN. show less
This study of authors (A.A. Milne, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.M. Barrie, Margery Williams Bianco, etc.) sees the youngest readers as from a "tribe" with the writers' goal to "...tell a story with universal appeal to anyone anywhere who finds himself, like most children, at a social disadvantage."
I get the impression all these authors were socially maladjusted in some significant way. Also, the most impactful children's literature is dark and direct in ways softened by rewrites and adaptations later on.
I always found it show more interesting how evolution reflects in fetal development. As part of a final section that instead of looking at a single writer considers the organic growth of jokes, rhymes, play-songs, etc. this is used as a metaphor.
Children, however, are still living largely in a folk culture. They are still actively inventing and passing on stories and verses, some of which have the simplicity, originality, and profundity of great folk literature.
I get the impression all these authors were socially maladjusted in some significant way. Also, the most impactful children's literature is dark and direct in ways softened by rewrites and adaptations later on.
I always found it show more interesting how evolution reflects in fetal development. As part of a final section that instead of looking at a single writer considers the organic growth of jokes, rhymes, play-songs, etc. this is used as a metaphor.
Though these verses carry a clear message, to an adult much of the folklore of childhood may sound trivial or even meaningless. This is to make the same kind of mistake that early explorers made when they couldn't understand the stories and jokes told in other cultures. Later on, anthropologists who took the time to study these societies understood their folklore indeed, studying the folklore was one of the ways they came to understand the society.show less
Anyone who has spent time around children and observed them carefully, or really remembers what it was like to be a child, knows that childhood is also a separate culture, with its own rituals, beliefs, games, and customs, and its own, largely oral, literature. Childhood, in this sense, is a primitive society - or rather, several primitive societies, one leading into the other. Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny; the development of the individual parallels the development of the race.
Just as the stages of the human embryo repeat the stages of human evolution, so that at one point the embryo has gills and later a tail, the social development of the individual child repeats that of the human species. The earliest stage is that of prehistoric man and woman, or prehistoric baby. This creature is a savage whose principal interest is survival. Socially his or her world is very small, usually limited to the immediate family, and he/she is preverbal cannot speak but communicates in sign language or with inarticulate cries.
...
Next come ancient man and woman, socialized to the extent that they can function in small groups, as a two- or three-year-old does. Anthropologists studying primitive societies believe that this is often a matriarchal stage, in which the important authority figures are women...
For me, this book didn't live up to its title. Sure, it's kind of about "the subversive power of children's literature," but it's actually mostly about the biographies of certain children's authors and how certain children's stories are archetypes for adult literary fiction. And it's not a cohesive book at all. It's a series of essays that were probably originally intended for lit crit mags. When Lurie does address subversiveness, it's usually historical (the book was published in 1990, so I didn't expect nearly every essay to be about Victorian social norms).
I wanted this book to address a subject that really interests me, which is the way some kids books intentionally guide their readers toward a certain way of thinking. I was show more actually hoping this book would be a better version of my college seminar paper, which was about how Disney movies paved the way for gay rights. Oh well. show less
I wanted this book to address a subject that really interests me, which is the way some kids books intentionally guide their readers toward a certain way of thinking. I was show more actually hoping this book would be a better version of my college seminar paper, which was about how Disney movies paved the way for gay rights. Oh well. show less
Lurie points out interesting ways of interpreting classics of children's literature, and illuminates some of the personalities behind famous books. For instance, I didn't know the author of Peter Pan was himself preternaturally young, possibly suffering from a condition that prevented him from completing puberty. Many of the most popular children's tales are subversive and flout tradition, rules and, most importantly, parental authority.
Alison Lurie's collection of essays is entertaining and at times thought-provoking, but mostly her analyses were too Freudian for me. And inconsistent: she says death was absent from children's literature until the 20th century. In context, it's possible she meant absent in the first half of that century, but she's not clear and says this just after mentioning Little Women. People die left and right in Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, L.M. Montgomery, and Elizabeth Enright, and even Nancy Drew's mother is dead. Granted, most of the deaths happen off the page, at the very beginning to establish the setting, or to background characters you've never met -- like the Melendys' mother and Nancy's. Beth is an exception, but a show more glaringly contradictory one.
After, say, 1960, the morbidity rate for mothers rises sharply. A friend of mine lamented the dead mothers in contemporary books for her daughter, and she's right: many Newbery medalists including Voigt and Creech, lots of Joan Aiken, the Penderwicks, the Traveling Pants series, and Harry Potter of course. Probably because all the girl protagonists have Electra complexes.
More about authors than power to the pipsqueaks, but okay. show less
After, say, 1960, the morbidity rate for mothers rises sharply. A friend of mine lamented the dead mothers in contemporary books for her daughter, and she's right: many Newbery medalists including Voigt and Creech, lots of Joan Aiken, the Penderwicks, the Traveling Pants series, and Harry Potter of course. Probably because all the girl protagonists have Electra complexes.
More about authors than power to the pipsqueaks, but okay. show less
Of all the hundreds of childrens books that have been written (especially in the last 150 years by British authors), the ones best loved, remembered, and still shared are those that have subversive undertones. Rather than stories about good boys and girls always getting the best rewards and naughty children always punished, we keep turning back to the clever children who get into trouble but still go out and explore even more, where adults aren't always right and the world is rarely fair.
Lurie examines a few of the more ground-breaking examples of this kind of literature, including the works of Beatrix Potter, the stories about Peter Pan, and Kate Greenway's works. She examines the lives of the authors, the influences of their works, show more and what exactly makes them so subversive. She also shows the history of children's literature-from fairy stories and folklore to a unique set of stories explicetly for children created because of the rise in the importance of childhood in Victorian England. Because of this, a vast majority of the works examined were written by British authors after the American Civil War and before WWI. This leads to some (in my opinion) glaring ommissions. Though she alludes to Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, she does not give their works the examination given to the other authors. Nor does she consider stories like Brair Rabbit, the works of E.B. White, Judy Blume, or Beverly Cleary (or any American, I'd like to point out-this is a strictly British book, aside from a few slight mentions of the Americans)-or more current authors like Roald Dahl. Obviously, since this book was written in 1990, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling are not included, however, reading this book can help an adult reader understand the long history and important story-telling devices these authors use to create stories that children use to help themselves understand the strange world around them.
Despite all the criticisms I listed, this is an excellent and entertaining examination of children's lit and reminds the reader of how important these stories are to children and why they must be told and created. This is very useful for educators, child psychologists, children and young adult librarians, and anyone interested in remembering the thrill of reading about how much fun naughty Peter Rabbit got into.
Edit...
I just noticed the author published a more recent book and it appears this one is covering some of her glaring omissions-at least this time she's got Louisa May Alcott, Frank Baum, and Dr. Seuss in the mix! show less
Lurie examines a few of the more ground-breaking examples of this kind of literature, including the works of Beatrix Potter, the stories about Peter Pan, and Kate Greenway's works. She examines the lives of the authors, the influences of their works, show more and what exactly makes them so subversive. She also shows the history of children's literature-from fairy stories and folklore to a unique set of stories explicetly for children created because of the rise in the importance of childhood in Victorian England. Because of this, a vast majority of the works examined were written by British authors after the American Civil War and before WWI. This leads to some (in my opinion) glaring ommissions. Though she alludes to Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll, she does not give their works the examination given to the other authors. Nor does she consider stories like Brair Rabbit, the works of E.B. White, Judy Blume, or Beverly Cleary (or any American, I'd like to point out-this is a strictly British book, aside from a few slight mentions of the Americans)-or more current authors like Roald Dahl. Obviously, since this book was written in 1990, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling are not included, however, reading this book can help an adult reader understand the long history and important story-telling devices these authors use to create stories that children use to help themselves understand the strange world around them.
Despite all the criticisms I listed, this is an excellent and entertaining examination of children's lit and reminds the reader of how important these stories are to children and why they must be told and created. This is very useful for educators, child psychologists, children and young adult librarians, and anyone interested in remembering the thrill of reading about how much fun naughty Peter Rabbit got into.
Edit...
I just noticed the author published a more recent book and it appears this one is covering some of her glaring omissions-at least this time she's got Louisa May Alcott, Frank Baum, and Dr. Seuss in the mix! show less
In the Introduction, Lurie explains her thesis that a lot of the most beloved characters in children’s literature are not the kind of role models most people would want their children to look up to. For example, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn lie, cheat, steal, skip school, etc. In The Secret Garden, Mary and Colin spend the majority of their time trying to fool the adults around them about what they’re really doing. Harry Potter is too recent to have been included in this book, but he breaks rules repeatedly, convinces Hermione to let him copy her homework, etc. None of these are behaviors that we particularly want our children to emulate, yet well-behaved characters rarely make literary history.
This concept sounded extremely show more interesting to me, and I assumed that the rest of the chapters would focus on how individual authors wrote subversive characters and how they affected children and society. Unfortunately, Lurie did everything but that throughout the rest of the book. Her essays focused almost entirely on the biographical information of each author, the plots of one of their books, and unsupported suppositions about how the author’s life is represented in their books (i.e. this character is representative of the author’s overbearing father). Lurie is supposed to be a serious literary critic, but since her claims about how the authors’ lives were represented in their books didn’t cite any outside sources and very little textual evidence, I had trouble taking her seriously. The book simply didn’t contain any useful information after the introduction, and I suspect it contained some downright wrong information.
Another problem was that more than half of the book was spent discussing adult literature (like Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shardik by Richard Adams, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Once and Future King by T.H. White). In addition, she only had four chapters on well-known children’s authors (Beatrix Potter, James Barrie, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and A.A. Milne). The other children’s authors she writes about, while they may be historically important to the genre, were not well-known enough to be included in a book this short (just over 200 pages). There were just so many other, better authors she could have included (Beverly Cleary, Judy Bloom, Ronald Dahl, and Gertrude Chandler Warner are a few who come to mind).
Basically, it looked like Lurie took a bunch of essays that she had written earlier (and many of the chapters in this book had been published as individual essays elsewhere) and wrote an introduction to try to link them together, regardless of whether they actually work together under the theme she chose or not. I think this is the first time I’ve ever felt disgusted with a book. The only reasons I gave it two stars instead of one is that the introduction presented a great concept and that there weren’t actual (verifiable) mistakes in the book. show less
This concept sounded extremely show more interesting to me, and I assumed that the rest of the chapters would focus on how individual authors wrote subversive characters and how they affected children and society. Unfortunately, Lurie did everything but that throughout the rest of the book. Her essays focused almost entirely on the biographical information of each author, the plots of one of their books, and unsupported suppositions about how the author’s life is represented in their books (i.e. this character is representative of the author’s overbearing father). Lurie is supposed to be a serious literary critic, but since her claims about how the authors’ lives were represented in their books didn’t cite any outside sources and very little textual evidence, I had trouble taking her seriously. The book simply didn’t contain any useful information after the introduction, and I suspect it contained some downright wrong information.
Another problem was that more than half of the book was spent discussing adult literature (like Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Shardik by Richard Adams, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, and The Once and Future King by T.H. White). In addition, she only had four chapters on well-known children’s authors (Beatrix Potter, James Barrie, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and A.A. Milne). The other children’s authors she writes about, while they may be historically important to the genre, were not well-known enough to be included in a book this short (just over 200 pages). There were just so many other, better authors she could have included (Beverly Cleary, Judy Bloom, Ronald Dahl, and Gertrude Chandler Warner are a few who come to mind).
Basically, it looked like Lurie took a bunch of essays that she had written earlier (and many of the chapters in this book had been published as individual essays elsewhere) and wrote an introduction to try to link them together, regardless of whether they actually work together under the theme she chose or not. I think this is the first time I’ve ever felt disgusted with a book. The only reasons I gave it two stars instead of one is that the introduction presented a great concept and that there weren’t actual (verifiable) mistakes in the book. show less
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Novelist Alison Lurie was born September 3, 1926 in Chicago, Illinois to Harry and Bernice Stewart Lurie. She is an American novelist and academic. Lurie won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1984 novel Foreign Affairs. She received an A.B. from Radcliffe College in 1947. After finishing college, Lurie worked as an editorial assistant for Oxford show more University Press in New York, but she wanted to make a living as a writer. After years of receiving rejection slips, she devoted herself to raising her children. Lurie had taught at Cornell University since 1968, becoming a full professor in 1976 specializing in folklore and children's literature. Lurie's first novel was "Love and Friendship" (1962) and its characters were modeled on friends and colleagues. Afterwards, she published "The Nowhere City" (1965), "Imaginary Friends" (1967), "The War Between the Tates" (1974), which tells of the collapse of a perfect marriage between a professor and his wife, "Only Children" (1979), and "The Truth About Lorin Jones" (1988). "Foreign Affairs" (1984) won the Pulitzer Prize; it tells the story of two academics in England who learn more about love than academia. Her more recent books include the novels "Women and Ghosts" (1994), and "The Last Resort" (1998), and a work of nonfiction, "Familiar Spirits (2001)." Among her awards and honors, she received honorary degrees from the University of Oxford (2006) and the University of Nottingham (2007). And from 2012-2014, she was the official author of the state of New York. Alison Lurie died on December 3, 2020 in Ithaca, NY at the age of 94. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1990
- People/Characters
- Kate Greenway; Lucy Lane Clifford; Ford Madox Ford; Beatrix Potter; E. Nesbit; J. M. Barrie (show all 14); Frances Hodgson Burnett; A. A. Milne; J. R. R. Tolkien; T. H. White; Richard Adams; William Mayne; Winnie-the-Pooh; Winnie the Pooh
- Important places
- Hundred Acre Wood
- Dedication
- For Doris
- First words
- Foreword: there exists in our world an unusual, partly savage tribe, ancient and widely distributed, yet until recently little studied by anthropologists or historians.
Image an ideal suburban or small-town elementary school yard at recess. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Staying in touch with children's literature and folklore as an adult is not only a means of understanding what children are thinking and feelig; it is a way of understanding and renewing our own childhood.
Classifications
- Genres
- Literature Studies and Criticism, Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 820.99282 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English and Old English (Anglo-Saxon) literatures History, description, critical appraisal of works in more than one form
- LCC
- PR990 .L8 — Language and Literature English English Literature
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- Rating
- (3.74)
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- Paper
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 1
