The Enchanted Garden': a Changing Image in Children's Literature By
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`The Enchanted Garden': a changing image in children's literature by Catherine Beck, M. Ed, M. A. (Oxon.) Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, October, 2002 ýpTTINQ %ITY ýVQ Acknowledgements My sincerethanks are due once again to Dr. Martin Coles, for his limitless patience and good humour. He hasdone an immenseamount to foster my self-confidence,and to him is owed much of the enjoymentI have had during the long processof writing this thesis. Heartfelt thanks are also owed to family and friends who have understoodmy preoccupationwith this work; most of all to my mother and my sister who have constantlysupported me with their interestand love. This study is dedicated,with all my love, to Seb,Eleanor, Christopher and Susannah, who have helpedme, supportedme and have had a greatdeal to forgive over the last six years. Table of contents Chanter 1: Introductory I I. I. Introduction to the thesis 1 1.2. Definitions 2 1.3. Range of texts 9 1.4. The garden as symbol 10 1.5. Genesis of the study 15 1.6. Outline of thesis 20 Chanter 2: The garden as Eden: the loss of childhood 29 2.1. Historical context 30 2.2. The child made perfect 37 2.3. The political exploitation of the perfect child 45 2.4. Banishment from the garden: the unworthy adult 50 2.5. The psychological exploitation of childhood 59 2.6. The effect on society 67 2.7. Coda 77 Chanter 3: The garden as Eden: the loss of an innocent way of life 80 3.1. Nostalgia and social change: the garden as the rural ideal 83 3.2. The garden as an Arcadian image 90 3.3. The messageto children in such texts 91 3.4. E. Nesbit: Harding's Luck 92 3.5. Kenneth Grahame: The Wind in the Willows 99 3.6. Coda 118 Chapter 4: The garden as a playground: an image of security 121 4.1. Escapism in children's literature 122 4.2. The texts under consideration 125 4.3. Secure liberation 135 4.4. Freedom from fear 136 4.5. Limited freedom from adult interference 145 4.6. Freedom from adult problems 153 4.7. Freedom from the need to work 157 4.8. Freedom from authorial exploitation of childhood 158 4.9. Freedom to play 163 4.10. Freedom to act out roles 167 4.11. Freedom to live out fantasies of omnipotence 169 4.12. Coda 173 Chanter 5: The garden as a place of healing and growth 177 5.1. The garden as a sanctuary from rapid change 180 5.2. A sanctuary from the adult 193 5.3. Growth in the garden 196 5.4. The numinous garden 202 5.5. The healing powers of the garden 210 5.6. Coda 218 Chapter 6: Leaving the Barden 220 6.1. Leaving the fantasy garden: the need for independence 224 6.2. The garden as a trap: escaping from the fantasy garden 231 6.3. The garden as a trap: escaping from childhood 239 6.4. The inversion of Romanticism: leaving innocence behind 246 6.5. Coda 260 Chanter 7: Resolvin the paradox: Tom'.s MldnIRht Garden 263 7.1. The garden as a sanctuary and a playground in Tom's Midnight Garden 267 7.2. The garden as an escapefrom the modern world 272 7.3. The 'Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up' 274 7.4. The need to leave the garden 278 7.5. The perception of time in Tom's Midnight Garden 281 7.6. Coda 296 enter 8: Conclusions 301 8.1. Development of my thinking and some changes in my stance 301 8.2. Summary of thesis 307 8.3. Conclusions 315 8.4. Last thoughts 317 Bibliography 319 A-b-stract This study is a historico-cultural examination of the role of the garden in literature written for children between 1850 and 2000. The gardenis consideredfrom two perspectives- as a settingfor children'splay, and as a culturalsymbol that changesover time to reflectsocial concerns. The central assumption of this thesis is that the garden may be considered as a symbol of childhood itself. My main concern is to investigate the nature of the construct of childhood as evidencedin texts written at different periods, focussing on what it might have meant to be a child at those times. In doing so, I frequently have cause to contrast these definitions of `childhood' with each other, and with contemporaryones. The notion of the garden suggeststo me a series of `structural oppositions' (Rose, 1984), such as innocence/experience, civilisation/nature, home/away, enclosure/exposure;all of which are typical concerns of literature in general, and, arguably, particularly significant themes in children's literature and thus pertinent to its study. I suggestthat the garden as a common setting for children's literature also acts as a meeting-place,or compromise,for someof thesepairings. Since children are generally subject to adults, I consider that some of these oppositions can be regarded in terms of power and control. The thesis emphasises the `constructedness'of such oppositions,in order to demonstratethe mythological - and often adult-serving- nature of much thinking about childhood. I explore texts as diverse as Barrie's I'eter Pan (1911) and Pullman's His Dark Materials (1995-2000)in order to illustratechanges in the mythologyof childhood, and in the deploymentof the icon of the child in the garden.The study concludes with a detailed exploration of Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), which I believe expresses many symbolic meanings of the garden image in a particularly convincing way, with considerableartistic and emotionalintegrity. Chapter 1: Introductory ` the thing. That Tomorrow he into it: ... the garden was was real. would go he almost had the feel of tree-trunksbetween his handsas he climbed; he could almost smell the heavy blooming of the hyacinths in the corner beds.' Philippa Pearce,Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), p.28 1.1. Introduction to the thesis This studyis an attemptto explore`children's literature' throughan examinationof the different ways in which the garden is used as a setting and as an image in books written for children. I suggestthat `the garden' is a potent psycho-cultural icon that hasbeen used to define and control the conceptof `childhood'. The centralthesis is that the image of the garden in children's literature represents the `Eden' of childhood: and its definition, like that of any other symbolic artefact, depends on extrinsic socio-cultural factors, and thus changeswith time. Children's literature is a complex subject, the proper approach to which has been, and continuesto be, debatedand repeatedlyredefined (Hunt, 1994aand 1996,b; Briggs, 1996;Nodelman, 1996). Studentsof children's books tend to be divisible into two groups, which neverthelessoften overlap; the `child-centred' and the `book- centred' (Leeson, 1985, p. 142; Hunt, 1994, p. 17; Hol lindale, 1997, p. 15). Despite my I own experienceas a teacherand as a parentof children,for the purposesof this study I cast myself in the latter role. I am concerned here with a historico-cultural exploration of potential meanings in children's books: meanings which derive from their authors' own experiences,preoccupations and motives for writing and from the wider cultural circumstances in which the texts are situated. I stress that these meanings are `potential', since one can only infer from the texts exactly what messagesabout childhood might havebeen transmitted to the readersof thosetexts. The readers,of course,may be either child or adult. My use of the past tense throughoutthe studyreflects my concernto hypothesisecontemporaneous definitions of childhood,as comparedwith contemporaryones. Thereforemy interestin this study is in `childhood' rather than `children', if one acceptsthat there is a difference (Cunningham, 1995,pp. 2-3). 1.2. Definitions Given such a complex blend of hypothesisand literary and cultural analysis, in a field involving relationships between producers and consumers,both past and present,it is necessaryto define terms. Hollindale (1997, p.8) asks, rather baldly, `What do we mean by "children"? And what do we mean by "literature"? ' In a sense,this study is an attemptto answerthose difficult questions.They are impossible to answersimply; and the apparentlyobvious answersare unlikely to be either comprehensiveor preciseenough. My first responseto Hollindale's questionsis that the two terms 2 `children' and `literature' dependon each other for definition (Rose, 1984,argues that `child' and `adult' depend on each other in this way, calling this a structural opposite): the literature under consideration is that deemed (by the surrounding culture) suitableto be offered to the contemporaneouschild; and the child is the person similarly deemedsuitable to be offered it. Of course this circular definition is wholly inadequate,but perhaps makes sense- since we all have our own subjective idea of what a child is; and most of us have beeninvolved at sometime either in reading `children's literature' (as a child) or in purveyingit to children. In other words,both terms can be definedin as many different ways as there are interested parties. In order to refine my own definitions for the purposesof this study, I have considered as many alternatives as possible. While it may seemobvious what constitutesa child, it has been established (Cunningham, 1995, pp. 2-3; Hollindale, 1997, p. 13; Higonnet, 1998, p. 12; Heywood, 2001, pp.2-5) that definitions of childhood have changed over time, and there is no reason to suggest that this process will not continue. Some commentators define the child/childhood in terms of common features. Hunt (1996b, p. 11-12) refers to Tucker (1977), who, in What is a Child, focuses on transcultural features such as play, physiological limitations and, in Piagetian terms, lack of abstract thinking abilities.