|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
|
Picture This
A Multicultural Feminist Analysis of Picture Books for Children
Roger Clark
Rhode Island College
Heather Fink
New England Center for Children
The authors provide a multicultural feminist analysis of picture books for children by looking at the illustrations and listening carefully to themes of oppression and resistance in 33 picture books that focus on characters that are on the powerless side of some powerless/powerful social dichotomy. The authors find many images that either depict oppression or celebrate difference. They also find stories that extol the virtues of cooperation among similarly oppressed others, cooperation among differently oppressed others, and escape. They annotate the books to provide some sense of the themes of oppression and resistance that appear in each of them.
Key Words: childrens books multicultural feminism liberal feminism
References
- Anderson, M.,& Collins, P. (1998). Introduction. In M. Anderson& P. Collins (Eds.), Race, class and gender: An anthology(pp. 1-10). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
- Asimov, N. (1998, December 9). Fighting words: Book that causes uproar in N.Y. school celebrates nappy hair. San Francisco Chronicle, pp. A-21-A-21.
- Clark, R. (2002). Why all the counting? Feminist social science research on childrens literature. Childrens Literature in Education, 33, 285-295.[CrossRef]
- Clark, R., Almeida, M., Gurka, T.,& Middleton, L. (2003). Engendering tots with Caldecotts: An updated update. In E. S. Adler & R. Clark (Eds.), How its done: An invitation to social research(2nd ed., pp. 379-385). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
- Clark, R.,& Kulkin, H. (1996). Toward a multicultural feminist perspective on fiction for young adults. Youth & Society, 27, 291-312.[Abstract]
- Clark, R., Lennon, R.,& Morris, L. (1993). Of Caldecotts and kings: Gendered images in recent American childrens books by Black and non-Black illustrators. Gender and Society, 5, 227-245.
- Collins, P. H. (1990). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York: Routledge.
- Gates, H. L., Jr. (1993). "Race" as the trope for the world. In C. Lemert (Ed.), Social theory: The multicultural and classical readings(pp. 590-596). Boulder, CO: Westview. (Original work published 1986)
- Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and womens development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- Holloway, L. (1998a, November 24). After objections to a book, a teacher is transferred. New York Times, pp. B-5-B-5.
- Holloway, L. (1998b, November 27). Teacher threatened over book weighs switching schools. New York Times, pp. B-14-B-14.
- hooks, b. (1984). Feminist theory: From margin to center. Boston: South End Press.
- hooks, b. (1997). bell hooks: Cultural criticism and transformation[Film]. Northhampton, MA: Media Education Foundation.
- hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for everybody. Boston: South End Press.
- Johnston, D. K. (1988). Adolescents solutions to dilemmas in fables: two moral orientations Two problem-solving strategies. In C. Gilligan, J. V. Ward, & J. M. Taylor (Eds.), Mapping the moral domain(pp. 49-71). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
- King, D. (1988). Multiple jeopardy, multiple consciousness: The context of a Black feminist ideology. Signs, 14, 42-72.[CrossRef]
- Lemert, C. (Ed). (1993). Social theory: The multicultural and classical readings. Boulder, CO: Westview.
- Leslie, A. R. (1998). What African American mothers perceive their children to value when telling them Brer Rabbit stories. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 29, 173-185.
- Meyer, L. (1999, March 25). Nappy Hair still touchy class subject: Two N.Y. schools wont let author come to explain book that led to uproar and teachers reassignment. San Francisco Chronicle, pp. A-5-A-5.
- Ness, E. (1967). Sam, bangs, and moonshine. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
- Office of Intellectual Freedom. (2000). The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990-1999. American Library Association. Available from www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/top100bannedbooks.html
- Smith, D. (1998, November 25). Furor over book brings pain and pride to its author. The New York Times, pp. B-10-B-10.
- Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson& L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture(pp. 283-298). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
- Weitzman, L., Eifler, D., Hokada, E., & Ross, C. (1972). Sex-role socialization in picture books for preschool children. American Journal of Sociology, 77, 1125-1150.[CrossRef]
- Wisniewski, D. (1996). Golem. New York: Clarion Books.
- Young, E. (1989). Lon po po. New York: Philomel.
- Zelinsky, P. O., & Grimm, J. (1997). Rapunzel. New York: Dalton Books.
Youth & Society, Vol. 36, No. 1,
102-125 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0044118X03258241

CiteULike Complore Connotea Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Technorati Twitter What's this?
|
|