ON CENSORSHIP • We Can Work It
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VOL 47, NO. 3 JULY 2009 A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ON CENSORSHIP • We Can Work It Out: Challenge, Debate and Acceptance • Picturing the Prophets; Should Art Create Doubt? • Sex and Violence in Fairy Tales for Children • Hidden Forms of Censorship and Their Impact • Peter Sís: A Quest for a Life in Truth • My Life with Censorship • Behind the Wall under the Red Star I N E T E R P L N A T E O I O N A P L B O O U N G A R D O N B O O K S F O R Y Bby A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S LITERATURE The Journal of IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People Copyright © 2009 by Bookbird, Inc. Reproduction of articles in Bookbird requires permission in writing from the editor. Editors: Catherine Kurkjian & Sylvia Vardell Address for submissions and other editorial correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] and [email protected] Bookbird’s editorial office is supported by Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT USA. Editorial Review Board: Sandra Beckett (Canada), Emy Beseghi (Italy), Ernest Bond (USA), Penni Cotton (UK), Nancy Hadaway (USA), Erica Hateley (Australia), Hans-Heino Ewers (Germany), Janet Hilbun (USA), Jeffrey Garrett (USA), June Jacko (USA), Nadia El Kholy (Egypt), Kerry Mallan (Australia), Chloe Mauger (Australia), Lissa Paul (USA), Mudite Treimane (Latvia), Liz Thiel (UK), Ira Saxena (India), Deborah Soria (Italy), Mary Shine Thompson (Ireland), Anna Karlskov Skyggebjerg (Denmark), Jochen Weber (Germany), Terrell A. Young (USA), Guest Reviewer; Helen R. Abadiano (USA) Board of Bookbird, Inc. (an Indiana not-for-profit corporation): Joan Glazer (USA), President; Ellis Vance (USA),Treasurer; Alida Cutts (USA),Secretary;James Tumusiime (Uganda);Mingzhou Zhang (China) Advertising Manager: Ellis Vance ([email protected]) Production: Design and layout by r. klonis dardzienski Proofread by Connie Rockman Printed by The Sheridan Press, Hanover, Pennsylvania, USA. Bookbird: A Journal of International Children’s Literature (ISSN 0006-7377) is a refereed journal published quarterly by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, and distributed by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Baltimore, Maryland, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Bookbird, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363. CANADA POSTMASTER: Bookbird. Publications Mail Registration Number 40600510. Send address corrections to The Johns Hopkins University Press, Journals Division, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4363, USA. Subscriptions to Bookbird: See inside back cover IBBY Executive Committee 2008–2010: Patricia Aldana (Canada), President; Reina Duarte (Spain) and Ahmed Redza Ahmad Khairuddin (Malaysia), Vice Presidents; Anastasia Arkhipova (Russia),Elisa Bonilla (Mexico), Hannelore Daubert (Germany),Wally de Doncker (Belgium), Nikki Gamble (UK), Jehan Helou (Palestine), James Tumusiime (Uganda), Mingzhou Zhang (China),Voting Members; Zohreh Ghaeni (Iran), Andersen Jury President; Elizabeth Page (Switzerland), Director of Member Services, Communications and New Projects; Forest Zhang (China), Deputy Director of Administration; Ellis Vance (USA), Treasurer; Sylvia Vardell (USA) and Catherine Kurkjian (USA), Bookbird Editors. IBBY may be contacted at Nonnenweg 12 Postfach, CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland, tel: +4161 272 29 17 fax: +4161 272 27 57 email: [email protected] <www.ibby.org>. Bookbird is indexed in Library Literature, Library and Information Abstracts (LISA), Children’s Book Review Index, and the MLA International Bibliography. Cover image: Sis, Peter (2007). The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN’S LITERATURE I said it in Hebrew – I said it in Dutch – I said it in German and Greek: But I wholly forgot (and it vexes me much) That English is what you must speak! HE FIRST: JAM AN FIT T D JUDICIOUS ADVICE Editorial: On Censorship | ii FI T THE SECOND: THOUGHTFUL AND GRAVE We Can Work It Out: Challenge, Debate and Acceptance Patrick Shannon | 1 Picturing the Prophets; Should Art Create Doubt? Kåre Bluitgen | 10 Sex and Violence in Fairy Tales for Children Niklas Bengtsson | 15 Hidden Forms of Censorship and Their Impact Cherie Givens | 22 : SUCH QUANTITIE THIRD S OF S THE AN FIT Peter Sís: A Quest for a Life in Truth D Barbara Scharioth | 29 My Life with Censorship Peter Sís | 42 Behind the Wall under the Red Star WAX Olga Maeots | 46 ING THE FOU SEAL FIT RTH AND : OF SHOES AND SHIPS Postcards from Around the World | interleaved Books on Books | 54 Focus IBBY | 60 FIT THE FIFTH: CONUNDRUMS TO GUESS Chanted Word Dorothy Wharehoka | 72 The quoted stanza is from ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ by Lewis Carroll. The titles of the various Bookbird sections are taken from that same poem, from ‘The Walrus and the Carpenter’, also by Lewis Carroll, and from ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ by Edward Lear. suppress invite offend include threaten select control choice harm freedom Editorial: On Censorship Dear Bookbird readers, Anyone who shares books with children cares about what they read. We look for literary quality, for books that match the needs of the child, for books that share authentic cultural content, for books that Bookbird editors prompt emotional responses, etc. Parents seek out old favorites, teachers read aloud during story time, librarians select books to build inviting collections, and all of this is often without the input of the constituent at the core: the child. Who can say what is appropriate in a children’s book? Who controls the content? How do we decide what is good, right, or best for children? Who decides? This issue of Bookbird focuses on the construct of censorship, SYLVIA VARDELL is a professor an important topic in children’s literature because it brings to light at Texas Woman’s University (USA) where she teaches graduate courses differing attitudes toward children and childhood, clashing personal in children’s literature. She is the author and public world views, beliefs and social theories that we hold dear, and of CHILDREN’S LITERATURE IN ACTION; A LIBRARIAN’S GUIDE and the pedagogical principles that we may consider nonnegotiable. The articles PoetryForChildren blog. in this issue show us varying dimensions of censorship in children’s literature revolving around pre-censorship (prior to publication), post- publication censorship, and self censorship occurring on many levels. The writers grapple with big questions pertaining to censorship and provide an insider’s view of what it is like to have one’s art censored. Feature articles CATHERINE KURKJIAN is a In We Can Work It Out: Challenge, Debate and Acceptance by Patrick professor in the Department of Shannon he asks, “Do I oppose or favor censorship? After making his Reading and Language Arts at Central Connecticut State University (USA) thinking process visible to the readers, his response is a resounding where she teaches courses in Reading and Language Arts and Children’s “Yes!” He concludes that it is more useful to ask “Why does censorship Literature. Her areas of specialization exist?” and “How does it work?” Shannon explores the multi-faceted include children’s literature, and the intersection of literacy and technology. nature of censorship and argues against the possibility of coming to consensus among clashing viewpoints. Rather, he argues for a process in © 2009 by Bookbird, Inc. i | BOOKBIRD EDITORIAL which we reach “dissensus” which involves talk that censorship in relationship to what is appropriate for locates our differences in relation to each other. In children and challenges us to question our notions the reading of this piece, questions emerge such as of childhood and what constitutes objectionable “Can we live and work together with our clashing content for children. differences?” and “Can we dream of differences Cherie L. Givens’ Hidden Forms of Censorship without fear of domination?” and Their Impact highlights ways that children’s More queries that may generate debate are raised books may be censored BEFORE they are published in Picturing the Prophets: Should Art Create by educational publishers, trade publishers, and Doubt? by Danish children’s author Kåre Bluitgen. even seen by award committees. The practices He tells of his quest in 2005 to find someone that Givens describes provoke questions regarding willing to illustrate his newly written book about what contributes to a great work of literature, the prophet Mohammed. Bluitgen tells of the self versus one that is mediocre at best. It invites censorship he found among illustrators and their discussions on the portrayal of stereotypes, as unwillingness to depict the image of Mohammad well as what constitutes authentic, culturally rich fueled by their fear of reprisal. When Bluitgen literature. Based on her research, she provides brings his concern regarding self censorship to anonymous excerpts from Canadian authors who the newspapers, the events of the Jyllands-Posten experienced this clandestine form of censorship. “Cartoon Crisis” unfold. Bluitgen suggests that Authors were “invited” to cleanse their texts of self censorship is not only motivated by those who religious references, scientific terms that might fear reprisal, but also by those with the desire not offend religious groups, characterizations that to offend. He argues that artists have an obligation were too religious, and the like. Other examples to help us question and view things in a new way. are provided in which multicultural guidelines Bluitgen primarily addresses the notion of self are blindly implemented thus rendering the text censorship, but also takes issue with the alteration and illustrations inaccurate, inauthentic and/or of works of art AFTER publication, as in the case insipid. By making the public aware of what goes of altering the work of deceased authors. He causes on behind the scenes prior to publication, Givens us to ponder questions about the nature of art and hopes to rally support for intellectual and artistic the role of the artist.