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Uni International 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Mi 48106 8300221 Chatton, Barbara Ann PASTORALISM AND PASTORAL ROMANCE IN TWENTIETH CENTURY CHILDREN’S LITERATURE The Ohio State University PH.D. 1982 University Microfilms International300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Copyright 1982 by Chatton, Barbara Ann All Rights Reserved PASTORALISM AND PASTORAL ROMANCE IN TWENTIETH CENTURY CHILDREN'S LITERATURE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Barbara Ann Chatton, B.A., M.L.S. The Ohio State University 1982 Reading Committee: Approved By: Charlotte S. Huck Patrick B. Mullen Frank J. Zidonis Advisor Department of Education ACKNCJHLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank all three members of the dissertation ccnmittee for their encouragement and unfailing support. My advisor, Dr. Charlotte Huck, has shepherded me through all of the difficulties of the study. Her ability to help me to clarify, her incisive criticism, and her confidence in me were invaluable. Dr. Frank Zidonis helped to solidify the- purposes and framework of the study in its early stages, and provided articulate and always witty editorial help. I am indebted to Dr. Patrick Mullen for insights into folk ideas in literature which led to the undertaking of this study. His recctimendations of readings and his thoughtful and enthusiastic feedback were greatly appreciated. Dr. Betty Cleaver provided time and bibliographic resources for a great deal of the groundwork for the study, for which I am grateful. Barbara Fincher typed it with blessed efficiency, tolerance of the writer's jitters, and with her usual good grace. In addition, four good friends, Susan Hepler Fertig, Janet Hickman, Linda Cochran, and Mary Shorey have willingly shared their own individual versions of the American pastoral dream with me, for which I am pleased and grateful. vim August 4, 1948............. Bom, San Francisco, California 197 0 ...................... B.A. in History, University of California Santa Cruz, California 197 1..................... M.L.S., University of California Los Angeles, California 1971-1979 ................ Librarian, John Steinbeck Public Library, Salinas, California 1979-198 2 ................. Graduate Research Associate, The Edgar Dale Educational Media Center, The Ohio State University, Colmbus, Ohio 1980-1982 Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University, Coluribus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS ''Storytelling in the Classroom," Ohio Reading Teacher, April, 1981. Contributor to The WEB, 1979-1982. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Children's Literature Studies in Children's Literature. Professor Charlotte S. Huck Studies in Adolescent Literature. Professor Frank Zidonis Studies in Folklore. Professor Patrick Mullen iii TABIE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS....................................... ii VITA .................................................... iii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION................................. I Children's literature as Part of All Literature . 1 American Cultural Values ..................... 3 Pastoralism Defined.......................... 5 American Pastoralism......................... 7 Pastoralism in Children's literature.......... 10 Purpose of the S t u d y ......................... 14 Definition of Terms .......................... 15 Limitations of the Stutfy..................... 15 Selection of Books ............... 15 Procedures .................................. 17 Organization of the Study .................... 20 II. THE FRONTIER PASTORAL........................ 22 Background: The American Frontier ............ 22 The Family as Hero ........................... 27 life on the Frontier......................... 34 Qualities of the Pioneer ..................... 38 The Pattern of the P a s t ...................... 40 The Role of Technology....................... 44 The Child on the Frontier .................... 48 The Frontier Versus the C i t y .................. 50 The Role of the Indian on the Frontier........ 52 Taming the Wilderness ........................ 55 Loving the L a n d .................. 56 The Frontier Pastoral ........................ 59 III. THE WILDERNESS PASTORAL...................... 63 Background: The Wilderness Experience ........ 63 Contemplative life in the Wilderness.......... 69 The gifts of the Wilderness ................... 74 The Solitary Hero ............................ 79 Contemporary Survival Novels .................. 81 Isolation, Loneliness, and Return ............. 85 The Indian in the Wilderness .................. 90 The Decline of the Wilderness ................. 97 iv Page IV. THE PASTORAL ROMANCE.......................... 104 Background: The Pastoral Novel and the Pastoral Rcmance ......................... 104 The Pattern of the Pastoral Rcmance........... 108 The Role of Animals in the Pastoral Romance 110 Seasonal Structure in the Romance............. 117 Pastoral Romances with a Farm Setting......... 118 The Country Versus the C i t y .................. 122 Nostalgia for the P a s t ....................... 126 The Longing for Roots ........................ 127 The Small T o w n ........ 130 V. THE MIDDIE GROUND: NOVELS ABOUT SHEEP AND SHEPHERDS 132 Background: The Role of Sheep in literature 132 The Role of the Indian Shepherd................ 136 The Role of Animals in the Sheep Novels. ..... 141 The Pattern of Life in the SheepherdingNovels ... 144 The Middle Landscape .......................... 150 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ........................ 153 The Patterns of the Pastoral Novel.............. 153 Nostalgia in the Pastoral N o v e l ................ 158 The Future of Pastoralism and Suggestions for Rjrther Study ............................ 166 APPENDIXES A. NEWBEKY WINNERS AND HONOR BOOKS SETIN THE UNITED STATES ................................ 178 B. NOVELS SET IN THE P AST ......................... 182 C. NOVELS WITH RURAL SETTINGS..................... 185 D. NOVELS WITH URBAN SETTINGS ..................... 189 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................... 191 v CHAPTER I INTRCOUCTION Children's Literature as a Part of all Literature Children's literature has often been considered to be a step child of the main body of literature: a genre that is created for a particular audience, requiring a particular kind of criticism. Even so staunch a defender of good literature for children as Paul Hazard sees children's literature as part of the universal force of creative writing but maintains that such literature should be different from literature for adults. Ihe first sentence in his classic Books, Children and Men is "Children and grownups belong to different worlds.By asserting that the literature for chil dren is somehow different from the mainstream of literature for adults, Hazard sets it aside frcxn the mainstream in terms of the kinds of criticism applied to it. On the other hand, as Betty Brett points out in her study of recent criticism of children's literature, critics have insisted that children's literature is not merely a sub category with different traits, but a part of all literature, subject to the Ipaul Hazard, Books, Children and Men (Boston: The Horn Book, 1944), p. 1. 1 same criticisms and interpretations as all literature. Lillian Smith states that considered reading of children's literature reveals that identical artistic standards prevail in the literature for children and adults. Smith says critics who appraise works for children "should have a conviction that children's literature as literature is significant, with its