National Character in South African English Children's Literature (Children's Literature and Culture)

250 Pages·2006·2.98 MB·English

by  Elwyn Jenkins

NATIONAL
CHARACTER
IN
S A
OUTH FRICAN
E
NGLISH
C
HILDREN’S
L
ITERATURE
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Jack Zipes, Series Editor
Children’s Literature Comes of Age The Case of Peter Rabbit How Picturebooks Work
Toward a New Aesthetic Changing Conditions of Literature for by Maria Nikolajeva and Carole
by Maria Nikolajeva Children Scott
by Margaret Mackey
Sparing the Child Brown Gold
Grief and the Unspeakable in Youth The Feminine Subject in Children’s Milestones of African American
Literature About Nazism and the Literature Children’s Picture Books, 1845–2002
Holocaust by Christine Wilkie-Stibbs by Michelle H. Martin
by Hamida Bosmajian
Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Russell Hoban/Forty Years
Rediscoveries in Children’s Fiction Essays on His Writing for Children
Literature by Robyn McCallum by Alida Allison
by Suzanne Rahn
Recycling Red Riding Hood
Apartheid and Racism in South
Inventing the Child by Sandra Beckett
African
Culture, Ideology, and the Story of
Childhood The Poetics of Childhood Children’s Literature
by Joseph L. Zornado by Roni Natov by Donnarae MacCann and Amadu
Maddy
Regendering the School Story Voices of the Other
Sassy Sissies and Tattling Tomboys Children’s Literature and the Empire’s Children
by Beverly Lyon Clark Postcolonial Context Empire and Imperialism in Classic
edited by Roderick McGillis British Children’s Books
A Necessary Fantasy? by M. Daphne Kutzer
The Heroic Figure in Children’s Narrating Africa
Popular Culture George Henty and the Fiction of Constructing the Canon of
edited by Dudley Jones and Tony Empire Children’s Literature
Watkins by Mawuena Kossi Logan Beyond Library Walls and Ivory
Towers
White Supremacy in Children’s Reimagining Shakespeare for by Anne Lundin
Literature Children and Young Adults
Characterizations of African edited by Naomi J. Miller Youth of Darkest England
Americans, 1830-1900 Working Class Children at the Heart of
by Donnarae MacCann Representing the Holocaust in Victorian Empire
Youth Literature by Troy Boone
Ways of Being Male by Lydia Kokkola
Representing Masculinities in Ursula K. Leguin Beyond Genre
Children’s Literature and Film Translating for Children Literature for Children and Adults
by John Stephens by Riitta Oittinen by Mike Cadden
Retelling Stories, Framing Culture Beatrix Potter Twice-Told Children’s Tales
Traditional Story and Metanarratives Writing in Code edited by Betty Greenway
in Children’s Literature by M. Daphne Kutzer
by John Stephens and Robyn Diana Wynne Jones
McCallum Children’s Films The Fantastic Tradition and Children’s
History, Ideology, Pedagogy, Theory
Literature
Pinocchio Goes Postmodern by Ian Wojcik-Andrews
by Farah Mendlesohn
Perils of a Puppet in the United States
by Richard Wunderlich and Thomas Utopian and Dystopian Writing for
Childhood and Children’s Books in
J. Morrissey Children and Young Adults
Early Modern Europe, 1550–1800
edited by Carrie Hintz and Elaine
Little Women and the Feminist Ostry edited by Andrea Immel and
Imagination Michael Witmore
Criticism, Controversy, Personal Transcending Boundaries
Essays Writing for a Dual Audience of Voracious Children
edited by Janice M. Alberghene and Children and Adults Who Eats Whom in Children’s
Beverly Lyon Clark edited by Sandra L. Beckett Literature
by Carolyn Daniel
The Presence of the Past The Making of the Modern Child
Memory, Heritage, and Childhood in Children’s Literature and Childhood in National Character in South
Postwar Britain the Late Eighteenth Century African Children’s Literature
by Valerie Krips by Andrew O’Malley by Elwin Jenkins
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NATIONAL
CHARACTER
IN
S A
OUTH FRICAN
E
NGLISH
C
HILDREN’S
L
ITERATURE
Elwyn Jenkins
New York London
Routledge is an imprint of the
Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
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New York, NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon
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© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-415-97676-6 (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-415-97676-3 (Hardcover)
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Series Editor’s Foreword xvii
1 Country Children 1
2 Famous Writers and Books 21
3 Ecology 43
4 Fairies, Talking Animals and Patriotism 61
5 Folktales 87
6 Stories in the Folktale Tradition 109
7 Th e San and the National Conscience 123
8 Cross-Cultural Dressing, Nudity and Cultural Identity 151
9 City Children 171
Notes 189
Bibliography 207
Index 221
v
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. T itle page from Th e Fairies in the Mealie Patch by G.M. Rog-
ers and title page design for the Juta’s Juvenile Library series
2. Illustration by Esdon Frost from Tickey by Sheila Dederick
3. I llustration by Katrine Harries from Kana and His Dog by
Jessie Hertslet
4. Illustration by Keith van Winkel from Th e King who Loved
Birds by Patricia Schonstein Pinnock
5. Illustration by Cythna Letty from Th e Locust Bird by Ella
MacKenzie
6. I llustration by Azaria Mbatha from Tales of the Trickster Boy
by Jack Cope
7. I llustration by John van Reenen from Th e White Arrow by
Pieter Grobbelaar
8. Cover design by Lesley Sharman for the Maskew Miller Long-
man edition of Song of Be by Lesley Beake
9. I llustration by Len Lindique, cover design by Dirk Joubert for
Tongelo by Catherine Annandale
1 0. C over design by Orchard Publishing for Dance Idols by Anne
Schlebusch
11. Illustration by Niki Daly from Not so Fast, Songololo by
Niki Daly
vii
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Some parts of this book include revised versions or parts of previously
published articles by the author, which are reproduced by kind per-
mission of the publishers: “Th e Growth of a National Children’s Lit-
erature in English,” Th e English Academy Review 18 (2001): 140–149;
“Is Platkops Children a Children’s Book?” English in Africa 28(2) (Octo-
ber 2001): 135–140; “Nudity, Clothing and Cultural Identity,” English
in Africa 30(1) (May 2003): 88–104; “English South African Children’s
Literature and the Environment,” Literator 25(3) (December 2004):
107–123; “Fairies on the Veld,” in Comedy, Fantasy and Colonialism,
Ed. Graham Harper (London and New York: Continuum, 2002): 89–
103; “Adult Agendas in Publishing South African Folktales for Chil-
dren,” reproduced by kind permission of Springer Science and Business
Media from Children’s Literature and Education 33(4) (December 2002):
269–284, © Human Sciences Press, Inc.; “Th e Millennial Message of
Peter Slingsby’s Th e Joining,” Current Writing 12(1) (April 2000): 31–41;
“Images of the San,” in Other Worlds, Other Lives, Eds. Myrna Machet,
Sandra Olën and Th omas van der Walt (Pretoria: Unisa Press, 1996):
Vol. 1, 270–296.
Illustrations have been reproduced from the following books by kind
permission of the publishers: Th e King who Loved Birds, by Patricia
Pinnock (Grahamstown: African Sun, 1992); Th e Fairies in the Mealie
Patch, by G.M. Rogers (Cape Town: Juta, n.d.); and Dance Idols, by
Anne Schlebusch (Cape Town: New Africa Books, 2003). Th e follow-
ing illustrations have been reproduced by kind permission of Maskew
Miller Longman: from Song of Be, by Lesley Beake (Cape Town:
Maskew Miller Longman, 1991) and Tongelo by Catherine Annandale
ix
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