Ideology and Childrens Literature an article by Peter Hollindale

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Ideology and Childrens Literaturean article by
Peter Hollindale

• Presentation by Sandra Beals
• CHL 518 History of Childrens Literature
• Professor A. Wannamaker
• Fall 2009

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Definition Ideology

• A systematic scheme of ideas, usu. relating to
  politics or society, or to the conduct of a class
  or group, and regarded as justifying actions,
  esp. one that is held implicitly or adopted as a
  whole and maintained regardless of the course of
  events.
• Oxford English Dictionary

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Ideology A Brief Guide

• John Lye, a professor of English at Brock
  University in Ontario, presents a more complete
  description of ideology, with information about
  the history of the concept, see handout.
• Points to remember
• Marxist tradition
• Maximum control with minimum conflict
• Not deliberate
• Values, conceptions of the world, symbol
  systems used to legitimize the current
  order
• Inculcated through socialization and teaching,
  formally and informally
• Ideology is inherently conservative it seeks
  to legitimize and perpetuate itself.

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Catherine Belsey, Critical Practice

• . . . ideology resides in common-places and
  truisms, as well as in philosophical and
  religious systems. It is apparent in all that is
  obvious to us . . . If it is true, however, it
  is not the whole truth. Ideology obscures the
  real conditions of existence by presenting
  partial truths. It is a set of omissions, gaps
  rather than lies, smoothing over contradictions,
  appearing to provide answers to questions which
  in practice is evades . . . (53)
• Language carries ideology whether we are aware of
  it or not.
• We absorb ideology as we learn to speak.
• Language, and thus the ideology inscribed in it,
  shapes our thinking, in part by making some
  things seem natural, true, or right.
• Ideology has the effect of hiding some aspects of
  reality, especially the fact that some aspects
  are hidden.

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Peter HollindaleIdeology and Childrens
Literature (1988)

• Book People
• Lean toward valuing the aesthetic aspects of
  language and rhetoric that are acquired through
  study.
• Tend to see childrens literature as a genre
• Understand how literature can comment on,
  challenge, and highlight ideology

• Child People
• Lean toward correcting what is wrong with the
  current ideology racism, sexism, classism, etc.
• Tend to see childrens literature in terms of its
  readership
• Understand how the current dominant ideology
  disempowers many people

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A problem a solution

• According to Hollindale, the stereotyping and
  general polarization between these two groups is
  unproductive at best.
• He suggests that instead of perpetuating a battle
  of values within the field, we should all focus
  on becoming skilled at detecting the ideology in
  texts and teaching children to do the same.

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Three levels of ideology

• 1. Intended surface ideology
• 2. Unexamined beliefs of the writer that slip
  into the text unnoticed
• 3. The reality of ideology hovering over us
  that herds writers and readers alike toward
  meanings that are consistent with it.

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Learning to read a novel

• While it may be difficult to change society
  through literature, because the current ideology
  is deeply embedded in the language we use, we can
  focus on skillful reading of texts in a way that
  brings the priorities of both book people and
  child people together and empowers children to
  resist the subtle influences of ideology.
• The the key suggestion offered by Hollindale in
  his article is that we can do, and teach children
  to do, what critics do--read critically, so that
  to the limits of each childs capacity that child
  will not be at the mercy of what she reads
  (Hollindale 19) emphasis in original.

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Fifty ways to leave your lover . . .or rather,
eight ways to lift ideology off the page
(Hollindale 22).
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1. Transpose elements or reassign parts.
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2. Consider the ending.

• Example
• Jos marriage. Readers wanted Jo to marry
  Laurie. This would have satisfied the prevailing
  view of what constitutes a happy ending for a
  woman. Alcott tried to rewrite this. Did she
  succeed?

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3. Check for grouping or packaging of values in
familiar ways.

• Example
• Truth, Justice, the American Way

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4. Look at different levels of meaning.

• Does the work test and undermine some of the
  values which it superficially appears to be
  celebrating? (Hollindale 20)
• Hollindale points to Huckleberry Finn and Tom
  Sawyer another example would be Machiavellis
  The Prince.

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5. Look for moral symmetry in the work.

• Are nice, easy-going people associated with
  good values or groups, and unpleasant or
  difficult characters left to embody the wrong
  values or groups?
• NB This distinction is about ideology and
  temperament the reader will naturally judge the
  attitudes and beliefs of the good guys as
  positive, and those of the bad guys as
  unacceptable.

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6. Look for a difficult decision that illustrates
the tension between socially accepted behavior
and a new value that the book is teaching.
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7. Notice if identifiable groups are judged, as
groups, to have higher value than others.

• Are the good guys all white, or girls, or
  members of the football team? In a book that is
  meant to show gender equality, do both parents
  have jobs outside the home but only the mother is
  shown doing housework?

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8. Omissions and invisibility. Who or what is
missing?