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Order and the Literary Rendering of Chaos: Children’S Literature As Knowledge, Culture, and Social Foundation

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Order and the Literary Rendering of Chaos: Children’S Literature As Knowledge, Culture, and Social Foundation Université de Montréal Order and the Literary Rendering of Chaos: Children’s Literature as Knowledge, Culture, and Social Foundation par Layla AbdelRahim Département de Littérature Comparée Faculté des arts et des sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des arts et sciences en vue de l’obtention du grade de Ph. D. en littérature option théorie et épistémologie de la littérature Mars, 2011 © Layla AbdelRahim, 2011 Université de Montréal Faculté des arts et des sciences Cette thèse intitulée: Order and the Literary Rendering of Chaos: Children’s Literature as Knowledge, Culture, and Social Foundation Présentée par: Layla AbdelRahim a été évaluée par un jury composé des personnes suivantes: Eric Savoy, président-rapporteur Terry Cochran, directeur de recherche Heike Härting, membre du jury Jack Zipes, examinateur externe Jürgen Heizmann, représentant du doyen de la FAS Abstract Ever since the human animal devised a system of technologies for abstract thought through language, the war on wilderness has become a one way path towards alienation, civilisation and literature. In this work, I examine how the civilised narrative orders experience by means of segregation, domestication, breeding, and extermination; whereas, I argue that the stories and narratives of wilderness project chaos and infinite possibilities for experiencing the world through a diverse community of life. One of my goals in conducting this study on children's literature as knowledge, culture and social foundation has been to bridge the gap between science and literature and to examine the interconnectedness of fiction and reality as a two-way road. Another aim has been to engage these narratives in a dialogue with each other as I trace their expression in the various disciplines and books written for both children and adults as well as analyse the manifestation of fictional narratives in real life. This is both an inter- and multi- disciplinary endeavour that is reflected in the combination of research methods drawn from anthropology and literary studies as well as in the content that traces the narratives of order and chaos, or civilisation and wilderness, in children's literature and our world. I have chosen to compare and contrast three fictional children's books that offer three different real-world socio-economic paradigms, namely, A.A. Milne's Winnie-the- Pooh projecting a civilised monarcho-capitalist world, Nikolai Nosov's trilogy on The Adventures of Dunno and Friends as presenting the challenges and feats of an anarcho- socialist society in evolution from primitivism towards technology, and Tove Jansson's Moominbooks depicting chaos, anarchy, and wilderness that contain everything, including encounters with civilisation, but most of all an infinite love for the world. Stemming from the basic question in research methodology on how we know the world, I first examine the construction, transmission, and acquisition of knowledge, particularly through the lens of Bourdieu's theory of praxis, as well as the critique of language and literacy through Zerzan's, Ong's, and Goody's studies on the links between literacy, debt and oppression. Regarding children's literature depicting the three socio- iv economic paradigms, I chose three books with which I have been familiar since childhood, i.e. in whose narratives I have “native fluency” and, in this sense, this work is also about “anthropology at home”. Moreover, I compared and contrasted the underlying premises not only in the three books, but also with the unfolding narratives of wilderness and civilisation in real life, that I inserted in the form of ethnographic/journal entries throughout the dissertation. As I examine the very nature of literature, culture, and language and the civilised structures that domesticate the world through the threat of death and the expropriation of food, I also trace the presence of these narratives in the scientific (the Malthusian-Darwinian narrative), religious, and other cultural expressions and the challenges provided by anarchist science and theory (Kropotkin) as well as wild children's books such as Jansson's Moomintrolls. Keywords: children's literature, anthropology, anarchy, civilisation critique, chaos, narratives, literary theory, primitivism, ontology, epistemology. v Titre: L’ordre et la mise en scène littéraire du chaos: la littérature pour enfants comme savoir, culture, et fondation sociale Résumé Depuis que l'animal humain a conçu un système de technologies pour la pensée abstraite grâce au langage, la guerre contre le monde sauvage est devenu une voie à sens unique vers l'aliénation, la civilisation et la littérature. Le but de ce travail est d'analyser comment les récits civilisationnels donnent une structure à l'expérience par le biais de la ségrégation, de la domestication, de la sélection, et de l'extermination, tandis que les récits sauvages démontrent les possibilités infinies du chaos pour découvrir le monde en toute sa diversité et en lien avec sa communauté de vie. Un des objectifs de cette thèse a été de combler le fossé entre la science et la littérature, et d'examiner l'interdépendance de la fiction et la réalité. Un autre objectif a été de mettre ces récits au cœur d'un dialogue les uns avec les autres, ainsi que de tracer leur expression dans les différentes disciplines et œuvres pour enfants et adultes mais également d’analyser leur manifestations c’est redondant dans la vie réelle. C'est un effort multi-disciplinaires qui se reflète dans la combinaison de méthodes de recherche en anthropologie et en études littéraires. Cette analyse compare et contraste trois livres de fiction pour enfants qui présentent trois différents paradigmes socio-économiques, à savoir, «Winnie-l'Ourson» de Milne qui met en place un monde civilisé monarcho-capitaliste, la trilogie de Nosov sur «les aventures de Neznaika et ses amis» qui présente les défis et les exploits d'une société anarcho-socialiste dans son évolution du primitivisme vers la technologie, et les livres de Moomines de Jansson, qui représentent le chaos, l'anarchie, et l'état sauvage qui contient tout, y compris des épisodes de civilisation. vi En axant la méthodologie de ma recherche sur la façon dont nous connaissons le monde, j'ai d'abord examiné la construction, la transmission et l'acquisition des connaissances, en particulier à travers la théorie de praxis de Bourdieu et la critique de la civilisation développée dans les études de Zerzan, Ong, et Goody sur les liens entre l'alphabétisation, la dette et l'oppression. Quant à la littérature pour enfants, j'ai choisi trois livres que j’ai connus pendant mon enfance, c'est-à-dire des livres qui sont devenus comme une «langue maternelle» pour moi. En ce sens, ce travail est aussi de «l’anthropologie du champ natif». En outre, j’analyse les prémisses sous-jacentes qui se trouvent non seulement dans les trois livres, mais dans le déroulement des récits de l'état sauvage et de la civilisation dans la vie réelle, des analyses qui paraissent dans cette thèse sous la forme d'extraits d’un journal ethnographique. De même que j’examine la nature de la littérature ainsi que des structures civilisées qui domestiquent le monde au moyen de menaces de mort, je trace aussi la présence de ces récits dans l'expression scientifique (le récit malthusien- darwinien), religieuse, et dans autres expressions culturelles, et réfléchis sur les défis présentés par la théorie anarchiste (Kropotkine) ainsi que par les livres pour enfants écrits du point de vue sauvage, tels que ceux des Moomines. Mots-clés: littérature pour enfants, anthropologie, anarchie, critique de civilisation, chaos, théorie littéraire, primitivisme, ontologie, epistemologie, sociologie. vii Table of Contents An Acknowledgement and dedication ..............................................................................ix Introduction: The Root of It All: Theory of Literature and Life......................................11 Presentation of the Project, Its Structure and Outline.......................................................25 Part I Epistemologies of Chaos and the Orderly Unknowledge of Literacy.....................33 Chapter 1: Questions of Biography, Epistemology and Methodology..........................33 1.1. I read therefore I am: a biographical perspective...........................................33 1.2. Meeting Dunno and Friends..........................................................................39 1.3. Into the Moomin Valley.................................................................................40 1.4. Winnie-ther-Pooh as Other............................................................................42 1.5. Brief Sketches about the Authors..................................................................43 1.6. A Note on Illustrations..................................................................................50 Chapter 2: I Read Therefore I am: A Sociological Perspective.....................................51 Chapter 3: Language as Root of Violence and Grammar of Ordered Reality................56 Chapter 4: Literacy as Tool of Domestication and Oppression.....................................63 Chapter 5: First there was Dunno, then there were Rosenhan and Foucault.................77 Chapter 6: Wild Somalis and Civilised Swedes as Fiction and Reality of Winnie-the- Pooh's Immigration Policies........................................................................................98 Chapter 7: Whose Narratives? Whose Children?—the Foundation of Crime and Punishment................................................................................................................114
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