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FINAL Current Developments at the Intersection of British Children ONLINE VERSION
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p. 20, remind one of Orwell’s socio-critical 1984 and the social engineering in form of the caste system of Huxley’s Brave New World. 61 Nicholson, Slaves of the Mastery, p. 236. 224 seem bizarre at first sight and, as a consequence, is ridiculed by Harry and Ron, yet it underlines the significance of social injustice even in the wizarding world. On a larger scale, the evil wizard and tyrant Voldemort also operates with means of oppression but imposes his will through his reign of terror. Ignoring compassion and mercy, Voldemort does not shrink back from torture and murder. Rather, his cruelty gives him pleasure. Not only is the social criticism in Harry Potter directed against such despotic oppression but also against racism in any form. The latter is one of the central threads of criticism running through the series. It is not without reason that the fanaticism with which evil wizards persecute “impure” wizards and humans is alluding to the ethnic cleansing during the Nazi regime. Spinelessness and cowardice, best impersonated by the character Wormtail, are presented as despicable, whereas values like courage, protection of the weak, friendship, love and trust, impersonated by the positive main characters, are highly esteemed. Likewise, Pullman’s metaphysical His Dark Materials trilogy criticises social injustices, despotism and cruelty. Comparable to a polyphonic canon, various social systems of the different worlds are presented. Through contrast and comparison their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages are illustrated. Examples are the sub-community of the children in Lyra’s Oxford, the children of Cittàgazze, the Lapland witches, the Gallivespians, the community of the armoured bears or the mulefa. Each group has their own social system, ranging from the bears’ Darwinistic survival of the fittest, the witches’ plurality of individuals against the background of a common mentality to the pacifistic ideal community of the mulefa. Against such a cross-section of the trilogy’s social landscape science and the Church are two “institutions” which, each in their own way, contrast with the various social systems. Representing and pursuing opposite views on the universes, their structure and purpose, both parties compete with each other to explain, to interpret and lastly to control phenomena. Whereas in His Dark Materials science is primarily interested in the research into nature’s scientific phenomena and their possible exploitation by society, the Church instrumentalises those phenomena in order to integrate them into its interpretation, i.e. doctrine, of the worlds. In Pullman’s trilogy Dust is the novels’ central phenomena that advances to the point at issue on which the opinions of science and Church are divided. On the scientific side, the mysterious characteristics, origin and purpose of Dust are explored independent of each other by Lord Asriel and Mary Malone, and on the side of the Church by Mrs Coulter. Whereas Lord Asriel is open-minded and inquisitive, Mary Malone first has to overcome her initial distrust and scepticism in view of the matter with the help of the mulefa before she can get truly involved in it. The side and the attitude of the Church are represented by Mrs Coulter. 225 With its unyielding dogmatism, this institution lays claim to exclusive truth whilst condemning wholesale the unknown and uncanny. By demonising any phenomenon which does not fit the concept or could entail unpleasant concessions, His Dark Materials’ Church stirs up reminiscences of practices and attitudes of the Medieval Church. 62 Since the complexity of Dust makes it elude exact definition, the Church at least tries to gain control over it by means of repression on the one hand and cruel experiments on the other in order to investigate its nature. As long as Dust remains mysterious, the Church declares it equivalent to human sin. Due to this ignorance and fear Dust is rashly condemned as being something evil and therefore a danger to the people. In Pullman’s trilogy social criticism denounces such dogmatism. The hypocritical, censured control of society by the Church, against better judgement and under the cloak of spiritualism hardly manages to disguise its power-politics and the wish for omnipotence. In Tyler’s The Greenwich Chronicles, social criticism primarily attacks unjust and anti-social behaviour. The Wrecca’s version of a social system, a totalitarian reign of terror based on violence and oppression, serves as a negative example and is contrasted with the Guardians’ ideal democratic society by means of black and white extremes. The Wreccas’ way of life is presented as contemptible for several reasons. Not only does it not acknowledge the individual but it also denies the single Wreccas any rights or respect. Absolute power is given to a strong and despotic leader who then bullies his subjects as he sees fit until he is forced to abdicate by someone even stronger. Living underground in a filthy, smelly, unhealthy and dark environment and lacking any manners, the Wreccas resemble more sewer rats than anything else. With the Wreccas’ standards being that low, 63 they represent the underprivileged extreme. The Guardians, by contrast, represent the other extreme. Living above ground in the bright, open space of Greenwich Park, they are clearly elevated. Clean, civilised and pacifistic, the Guardians value the rights of every individual. What is more, they practise equality and grant freedom to everyone. Encouraging learning and thus helping to unfurl skills and talents, the Guardians actively work on a harmonious coexistence in which values are created and respected. Contrasted to the Wreccas, the Guardians provide the very positive example of a model society. 62 Pullman’s critical and offensive portrayal of such an institution and its dogmatism, for which the Church serves as an example which could be replaced by some political parties, already provides sufficient material for a study in its own right. 63 Visualised by their subterranean existence which can be compared to a vertical scale: The Guardians have a much higher standing. 226 By means of such contrasts, albeit most of them not as black and white as in The Greenwich Chronicles , current British fantasy novels for children discuss advantages and disadvantages of various social models. Through their physical or chronological distance 64 to reality fantasy worlds and their societies permit and encourage direct comparisons between reality and fantasy. Positive as well as negative phenomena in this as well as in other worlds sharpen the awareness of social structures and problems and their implications for the members of the respective communities. At first glance, social criticism in fantasy novels for children may thus seem a strange since outspoken adult topic. However, all children are born into a social network and need to learn its rules so as to be able to meaningfully navigate in it. The process of learning about the social structures and their workability includes scrutinising the purpose of the system and the comparison to others in order to draw conclusions for one’s own society. With its other worlds, fantasy literature can go through manifold social forms. Thus providing new aspects and utopias, it can give impulses for possible changes for the better of existing societies. Social criticism in current British fantasy novels for children constitutes one of the central points of formal innovations. This is not to say that novels like The Water-Babies or Alice in Wonderland are far less sociocritical. Whereas their approach is characterised by allusions and irony, in The Water-Babies sometimes even by bitterness at existing conditions, nowadays social and increasingly ecological injustices are addressed far more directly and thus in a more offensive way. Both authors and readers are becoming more and more aware of the importance of balanced and just social structures for the welfare of the entire world. Download 1.22 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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