Children's Literature and Play

Playful Reading

Reading literature ought to be an act of playing. It ought to be like the imaginative play of young children as they try out different roles (mommy, daddy, teacher) or act out the stories the playing is imagining. Most importantly, there is no one right way to do it. "Playful reading" is like what James Carse (1987) in his book Finite and Infinite Games calls "infinite play." The purpose of infinite play is to continue playing. There is no definitive end to playing with blocks or dollhouses. Infinite play isn't over when the game is won, because there are no winners or losers. Infinite play does pause when a player become tired, but only as a pause, waiting for if and when the player wishes to resume playing. Playful reading is also infinite, readers can return again and again to the same text and enjoy a different pleasure each time. Playful reading never ends, but it does pause. The text waits for the next occasion the reader has chosen to engage with it, though that interval may be minutes, days, months, or even years.

"Playful reading" is not about winning. Reading as a game the reader must win evokes memories of English classrooms where students tried to figure out the "correct" or "right" (or "winning!") meaning, a meaning usually predetermined by a textbook or an answer key. This kind of reading is more like what James Carse calls "finite play." The purpose of finite play is to win; once the game is won, the game is over. Playful reading is never over, never finished. It is infinite in its possibilities. Playful reading is not only silly or frivolous. Children, in playing house, or building with blocks, can be extremely serious in their intentions. Playful reading can be also extremely profound, or even painful.

For a discussion on the importance of play, click the following link to read the position statement on play by the Association for Childhood Education International. (Note: This is a link to download a pdf file.)

Literary Theory

Literary theory helps us understand some of the different ways we might play with literature. Mention literary theory to most people who are interested in children's literature and their eyes begin to roll. "Esoteric." "Pointless." "That's what English professors and students do, but it has nothing to do with children or children's literature." "Can't we just have fun with the books and enjoy them?" "Why do we have to analyze everything?" If you share one or more of these points of view, chances are you've had a bad experience in a literature class where you needed to figure out what the instructor already knew about the literary work and then reproduce it in a paper or on a test. Who wouldn't hate that? This course isn't about you reproducing what the instructor already knows. Frankly, that's rather boring to the instructor as well.

In reality, literary theory is an organized attempt to understand something about the nature of literature in the hope that through this understanding, new and provocative meanings of a text might be revealed. Literary theory does two things: it explains what we already do as readers and it provides us with new ways of looking at children or children's literature." Literary theory is a language that helps us explain what we already intuit and it is a lens through which we can look for different meanings and understandings of the same text. Playfulness enters in when readers try on different theoretical "lenses," each lens illuminating some aspects of the text, while obscuring others.

We will play with theory in this class in several ways with a few themes appearing and reappearing throughout the course. What follows is a short description of some of the major themes that will be running throughout the course.

Childhood as an Idea

The first theme is the idea that childhood is not only a biological phenomenon but also is a historical construction. "Childhood" is a notion that is held by adults, and what counts as childhood has changed over time and across cultures. How adults answer questions such as, "Who are children?" "How are children different from adults?" "What is my responsibility as an adult towards children?" actually becomes the basis for our ideas about what kinds of books children need or should have access to and what kinds of books are not appropriate for children. What adults consider to be good books for children are shaped by the ideas about children that adults believe to be true. One idea from literary theory is the idea of the implied reader--that the literary text, through its structure, suggests who the reader of that particular text ought to become. Childhood, then, gets constructed by the adults who write the books and by the adults who choose which books children might read. The first few lessons of this course will explore a few of these ideas of childhood and will show how limiting or liberating these ideas might be to children and their reading.

Children and Power

Children are relatively powerless in comparison to adults, and children are heavily dependent upon adults. Children's literature often reflects the responses of other less powerful groups (for example, slaves and servants, women) to domination. Since children are rarely successful in directly challenging adult power, they often resort to subversive and/or secretive behavior. Secrets, especially secrets from adults, are important. Many of the most popular and enduring children's stories are based upon children committing and getting away with acts of subversion or outright naughtiness. Trickster characters from The Cat in the Hat to Matilda in Roald Dahl's story of the same name are common throughout children's literature. Feminist theory among other theories provides insight into why there is so much opposition, sneakiness, and misbehavior in children's literature.

We will also look at power when it comes to constructions of gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and other social markers.

The Political Economy of Children's Literature

In previous ages children have been perceived by adults as innocent or wicked, empty vessels or emerging adults, productive workers or weaker human beings in need of protection. In today's post-modern, global economy children are becoming positioned by society as consumers. In the past 15 years there has been a dramatic restructuring of the children's book publishing industry. This restructuring has had a profound impact on the kinds of books that are now available for children. We are seeing series books, sequels, and media tie-in's at unprecedented levels. The pressure for a book to turn a significant profit quickly is intense and exerts a homogenizing effect on children's books. With corporate mergers more children's books are coming from fewer sources. We may have more books than ever before, but the books seem a little less distinctive each year. Few of us understand how profoundly the business of children's literature affects which books are available for children to read or that economic concerns of the industry work their way out into the content and the form of children's books.