A PRISM for viewing literary bears

ELE 616 Readings and Research in Children’s Literature

Spring 2011

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Why analyze literature?

To discover the full spectrum of the content

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A little Newtonian physicsIsaac Newton first used the word

spectrum (Latin for “appearance” or “apparition”) in print in 1671 in describing his experiments in optics. Newton observed that, when a narrow beam of white sunlight strikes the face of a glass prism at an angle, some is reflected and some of the beam passes into and through the glass, emerging as different colored bands. – NationMaster Encyclopedia

> Visible light

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Spectrum requires a prism

Estonian composer Arvo Pärt:– I could compare my music to white

light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener. • about his music: Alina 

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Prism as a filter

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin:– The biographer finds that the

past is not simply the past, but a prism through which the subject filters his own changing self-image. • Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1979).

‘‘Angles of Vision’’, in: Mark Pachter (Ed.), Telling Lives: the biographer’s art. Washington, DC: New Republic Books. Cited in Debate and Reflection: How to Write Journalism History

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A prism to view the full spectrum of literature

Personal

Real

Invented

SMiley face

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Personal?

Do you feel as if you’re involved; part of the action?

– That these are real people we’re dealing with—who have some identifiable personalities and personalities you can identify with?

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Real?

Is there something that makes you feel that this could have happened? – Even when it couldn’t in real life?

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Invented?

Is this story invented, created by one or more authors?

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SMiley Face?

Does it seem generic, impersonal?

Two Continuums

Real Invented

Personal SMiley Face

Put ‘em together!

Personal

SMiley

Real

Invented

Application to Literature???

. . . and bears????

Top Left Sector of Matrix14

Up close and Personal—and Real! Real

Personal

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. (Wikipedia)

Invented

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A Norwegian ursine folktaleWhite Bear King Valemon

• White-Bear-King-Valemon is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by the artist August Schneider in 1870, after a peasant woman, Thore Aslaksdotter (b. 1832), in Setesdal. The tale was for the first time retold and published in Peter Christen Asbjørnsen’s Norske Folke-Eventyr. Ny Samling (1871) [Norwegian Folktales. New Collection].

Folk costumes from Setesdal—every region of Norway has its own distinctive style!

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The tale of the white bear

Read the rest of the story here!

White-Bear King Valemon by Theodor Kittelsen.

Bottom Left Sector of Matrix17

Invented, but Personal RealP

ersonal Invented

Quality literature, sometimes adaptations, or else original

writing, with universal appeal and meaning for everyman and

everywoman

Quality literature about bears

A Bear Called Paddington

– Almost everyone knows that Paddington is a bear who usually wears a duffle coat, a rather shapeless hat and, on occasions, Wellington boots. Many people also know that his favourite food is marmalade and that he originally comes from Darkest Peru.• All about Paddington• Read How it all started

back in 1956

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A personal race of bears from another world

Panserbjørne– Panserbjørne are Armoured Bears who

live on the far northern island of Svalbard in Lyra’s world. Panserbjørne are innately different than humans even though both have the capacity to reason and speak. They are able to work metals using sharp claws and an opposable thumb. They are known for their strong armour they fashion from sky-iron.

Real SMileys!

Top Right of the Matrix20

Real

Recognizable stories, but unoriginal and shallow

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A real, smiley, bear?Gloomy Gus, Walt Morey (1970, repr.

2000)– Mr. Morey has done and redone this kind of

thing (Gentle Ben, Home Is the North, Kävik the Wolf Dog, Angry Waters), which makes him something of an expert but makes the set-up something of a cliché. . . .  so much is tangential that it takes forever for the full circle to close -- and then there’s the doubtful plot to down whole with the lump in your throat that the best of boy-cum-bear relations can’t dissolve. 

• Review from Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 1970. Reproduced in NoveList.

Read “The Wild and Wooly Man Who Writes Kids’ Books” by Larry Leonard (original copyright 1986) from Oregon Magazine 

Invented SMileys [perhaps contrived?]

Bottom Right of the Matrix22

Invented

Generic, unoriginal, impersonal, shallow

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An abecedarian search– As a young child is tucked

under her animal quilt, she realizes that one of the animals is missing. So begins an abecedarian search that will have all the animals coming to life and leading her on an adventure. Unfortunately, while the concept is creative, its execution is very poor. The search is so convoluted that young readers will get lost along the way, just as the main character does when she repeatedly loses track of her mission.• Review from Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2005

A confusing example?

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Important to consider!

Evaluation is subjective

No absolute positioning– There may be some consensus, but people will

likely not all agree about where a book should be placed

– Evaluations can change also, with time and changes in mood, etc.