Two English professors from Vancouver Island University explore how physical places and psychological spaces inhabited by children shape the identity of characters and readers in children's literature.
Terri Doughty and Dawn Thompson collected essays from a post-graduate conference on The Child and the Book at VIU in May 2009, which they will present and discuss to many of the conference's participants to continue the discussion Feb. 10, 10 a.m., at Malaspina Theatre.
Part of VIU’s Arts and Humanities Colloquium Series, this presentation addresses the premise that where individuals are situated matters as much if not more than it ever has. The authors explore indigeneity and place, analyze the relation between the child and the natural world, and study the role of fantastic spaces in the child’s construction of self.
Traditionally in the West, children were expected to “know their place,” but colloquium organizers pose questions about what this means in a contemporary, globalized world. Does it mean to continue to accept subordination to those larger and more powerful? Does it mean to establish and maintain a connection to one’s place of origin? Or is it about gaining an awareness of the ways in which identity is derived from a sense of place?
Doughty and Thompson present an overview of the book after which they and participants –Donna Flett, Aboriginal teacher, John Barsby Community School; Janet Grafton, a graduate student at the University of Northern British Columbia; and Sheila Grieve, Co-Chair, Early Childhood Education, VIU – will give brief individual presentations on specific chapters.
Doughty will discuss the uses of liminal spaces in the identity formation process in Charles de Lint’s young adult fantasy fiction.
Thompson will share her reading of the implications of educational decisions that take aboriginal youth away from home in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.
Flett will present her argument that Drew Hayden Taylor’s aboriginal young adult vampire novel The Night Wanderer contributes to a rethinking of the roles of elders in a youthful aboriginal population.
Grafton will provide an eco-critical analysis of green space as healing space in novels by Frances Hodgson Burnett, L. M. Montgomery and Dorothy Canfield Fisher.
Grieve will discuss the importance of aboriginal children having access to picture books which reflect indigenous experience.
The presentation will be accompanied by refreshments and followed by discussion. It is free of charge, and students are encouraged to attend.