- ChLA International Committee
ChLA 2023 International Panel Abstracts
The ChLA International Committee is pleased to present the abstracts for the 2023 International Panel focusing on Islands in Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Please join us at the annual ChLA Conference on Bellevue, WA to hear these thrilling papers. The International Panel is scheduled for Friday, June 16th from 3:00pm - 4:15 pm in Larch.
The latent wish for sinking into the abyss: Sicily and the persistent myth of Colapesce in the latest Italian Children’s Literature
Letterio Todaro, University of Catania, Italy
Reasoning about a ‘theory of Sicily’ the native philosopher Manlio Sgalambro argued that an arcane desire hides behind the physical/phenomenal existence of Sicily: the wish for sinking into the abyss. (Teoria della Sicilia, 1994) The emotional insight of the philosopher sounds impressive for capturing something of tragic in the hidden identity of the isle. Despite of its outstanding appearance, the esoteric essence of Sicily tells of an ancestral will for collapsing. Curiously, that a tragic revelation shows a sensitive resemblance with the symbolic meaning embedded in the Sicilian identity-myth personified by Colapesce: the boy changed into a marine creature and representing a legendary figure inspiring folk and fairy tales, dramatic scenes, songs for storytellers and narratives for children as well. The amphibious nature of Colapesce sounds like something very impressive and it has been strong enough in inspiring children’s imagination, so making the tale about the boy destined to be transformed into a marine being a timeless fiction. The fairy atmosphere and the instinctive fascination spreading around Colapesce’s changing figure look like a suggestive result of the prodigious imaginative energy acting into a typical story representing a metamorphosis. Anyway, the myth of Colapesce shows its proper originality as far as it embodies an allegorical meaning for identifying Sicily: the isle that, according to the legend, the marine creature still is bearing on its shoulders in the depth of the sea. Indeed, something of mysterious and tragic surroundings Colapesce’s figurative world as like as the original vocation of Sicily, for having their destiny in sinking into the depths. Maybe, the persistence of Colapesce’s myth into the current literary and artistic creation addressed to the public of the youngest readers depends on this charming mixture of fairy, epic and also tragic tones evoked by the story of the creature sunk into the abyss, supporting on its shoulders the emerged lands of Sicily and maintaining the beating heart of the isle into the depths of the sea. With a direct reference to the idea of the persistence of fairy tales in the postmodern, the paper is focused on the latest rewritings of Colapesce’s myth into the latest Italian children’s literature, analyzing the ways in which it is still an inspiring subject for the production of suggestive picturebooks and narratives.
Ecofeminism and Haenyeo Stories in Korean Picture Books
Yoo Kyung Sung, University of New Mexico
For hundreds of years, women in the South Korean island province of Jeju have made their living harvesting seafood by hand from the ocean floor. Known as haenyeo, or sea women, no breathing equipment is used for their seafood harvesting (Doenh, 2015). The province of Jeju is known as the “big island,” where unique ecological conditions shape the islanders’ thoughts, beliefs, culture,
language, lifestyles, and many other facets of their lives. Jeju Islanders have long had a tense relationship with the mainland. An impoverished Jeju was violently dragged into the ideological conflicts that shaped Korea’s postcolonial period (Jeju Peace Institute, 2017), contributing to Jeju’s long-term traumatic history in post-WWII and Korean War contexts, particularly in what was known as the April 3 uprising and massacre. Estimates vary, but 25,000 to 30,000 deaths is considered to be a reasonable guess: significant for a total population of 300,000 at the time (Jeju Peace Institute, 2017).
Social messages that are shared through haenyeo narratives in picture books echo the concerns of
ecofeminism. In ecofeminism, the feminine has long been associated with the natural, the body, and emotion, symbolized in metaphors such as the nurturing image of Mother Nature (Goralnik, Dobson, & Nelson, 2014). Haenyeo learn to be careful not to breathe in greed (wanting to hand-pick more seafood) in their harvesting journey, a practice called sumbisory, the sound of breathing and the sound of life. In Jeju society, the haenyeo accepted social conflicts: social oppression was traditionally practiced against women’s rights, yet the haenyeo had to be the main breadwinner, supporting their families and community to make ends meet. In this presentation, I explore a set of Korean picture books of mixed genres (i.e., historical fiction, realistic fiction, poetry, and informational books) that depict the haenyeo/해녀cultural ethos and lifestyles on Jeju Island. Employing critical content analysis (Johnson et al, 2017) by adopting critical ecofeminism, this study of the haenyeo’s cultural ethos is a conceptual framework that challenges gender inequity and issues of (post)coloniality directed against the islanders necessary to understanding the logic that enacts hierarchical relationships (Goralnik, 2020).
References
Goralnik, L. (2020). Ecofeminism. Salem Press Encyclopedia.
Goralnik, L., Dobson, T., & Nelson, M. P. (2014). Place-Based Care Ethics: A Field Philosophy Pedagogy. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 19, 180–196.
Jeju Peace Institute (2017). Jeju – From Island of Trauma to Island of Peace. http://jpi.or.kr/?p=681
Johnson, H., Mathis, J., & Short, K. G. (2017). Critical content analysis of children’s and young adult literature: reframing perspective. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Magic islands, unique ecosystems, or cultural repositories: changing imaginaries of the island/s in contemporary children’s literature in India
Devika Mehra, University of London | Newcastle University
Island narratives abound in children's and YA literature across the world. Why do island narratives provide ways of understanding liminal spaces or contested sites? Why is there an ambiguity in their significations of freedom and escape along with danger and crisis? In India, children's fiction and films represent the liminal space of the island to generate varying significations and visual iconographies. Situated away from the country's metropolis, these islands continue to have a tenuous temporal, cultural, and locational relationship with people. On the one hand, there is a negotiation with a space in flux due to various acts of humans. On the other hand, there is a preoccupation with preserving its heritage and environment.
This can be seen in children's fiction such as Sunil Gangopadhyay's More Adventures of Kakababu, Satyajit Ray's Munroe Dwiper Rahasya or Zai Whitaker's Andamans Boy and children's films like Tapan Sinha's Secret of the Island or Prithvi Konanur's Alegalu. In all of these texts, be it the Andaman and Nicobar islands or the Sunderbans, the site of the islands lets one encounter crisis situations, escapist fantasy, migrant experiences, and cultural heritage. The characters who seek or inhabit these islands undergo individual development. At the same time, they allow the readers to negotiate the relation between the landscape and identity.
This paper explores the changing imaginaries of the island/s, from the island as a repository of colonialism/post-colonialism and a setting for adventure to the island as a symbol of fragile biodiversity, a signifier of climate crisis and migration in contemporary children's literature in India. Through a critical analysis of Pankaj Sekhsaria's Waiting for Turtles (illus. Vipin Sketchplore), Zai Whitaker's Magic Islands (illus. Amitava Sengupta), Sandhya Rao's In Bon Bibi's Forest (illus. Proiti Roy), and Karthika Nair's The Honey Hunter (illus. Joëlle Jolivet), the paper highlights the link between climate crisis, migration, and the changing iconography and symbolism of the island. Finally, it investigates the importance of such narratives and retelling in reclaiming one's cultural heritage and safeguarding the environment.
Nature and the Industrialized City: Two Opposing Islands in Javier Peñaloza’s The Liberation of the Parks
Gustavo Velázquez Lazcano, University of Florida
The disproportionate loss of green spaces within a city provides a way of isolating and restricting freedom and imagination. This form of social control through gray zones appears in Javier Peñaloza’s La liberación de los parques (The Liberation of the Parks; 2021), with its fictional Mexican city made of concrete, devoid of any hint of color and plant-life, and totally absorbed by the capitalist demands of a gigantic Factory that is perceptible from anywhere in the City. The Factory owns everything that exists, including “time and […] people’s lives” (“el tiempo y […] la vida de la gente”; my trans.; 21). In fact, the Factory has updated the irregular labyrinthine Mexican city to one that resembles a perfectly squared prison, confining all other forms of non-human life to a park hidden within the Factory. To add misery to the gray space, the people of the Factory have also eliminated sidewalks and any other pedestrian infrastructure as a means of multiplying the number of cars in circulation. This physical restriction accompanies a ban on the right to ask questions and an order for employees and their families to stop dreaming.
In this paper, I examine the Factory as an island that isolates individuals from their families and friends by increasing their work hours and removing green spaces. In addition, I study the hidden park as a forgotten island—even erased from the employees’ memories—that seems to only exist within the utopian-nostalgic stories of the protagonist’s grandfather, who reminisces about a city with grass, hills, and trees in a time before the arrival of the Factory. My analysis will highlight the community resilience in the novel as the children work to liberate this green space, reclaim their public right to dream again, and recover the once calm life of their parents and relatives. I frame Peñaloza’s dystopian vision within a decolonizing critique of green spaces as centers of recreation, freedom, and relaxation that encourage the development of functional, imaginative, and healthy communities
A tentative conference schedule of all the presenters and panels is now available on the ChLA website.
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