Essentialism in Children’s Literature: The Emergence of Retrogressive Discourses in post- 9/11 Picture Books.

Authors

  • Agustín Reyes-Torres

Keywords:

essentialism, Self / Other, 9/11, children’s formation, ideology, dichotomy

Abstract

Immediately following the 9/11 attacks, a number of picture books for children were published as a response to the new socio-political context in the United States. This article explores how these books constitute an essentialist discourse whose themes and perspectives can be considered strategic. As will be analyzed, they reveal a “natural” positioning that generates a degree of group identification and constructs drastic dichotomies such as us versus them, by overlooking internal differences, reasserting the values of patriotism and national identity, and fostering the emergence of jingoistic dynamics that bring difference / sameness into play. Such an ethnocentric discourse is problematic because it defines the Self in opposition to the Other, and controversially induces young readers to adopt a one-sided and dogmatic ideology.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Agustín Reyes-Torres

Universitat de València

Downloads

Published

2014-01-06

How to Cite

Reyes-Torres, A. (2014). Essentialism in Children’s Literature: The Emergence of Retrogressive Discourses in post- 9/11 Picture Books. Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies, 36(1), 123–137. Retrieved from https://www.atlantisjournal.org/index.php/atlantis/article/view/84

Issue

2014: Vol. 36, Num. 1

Section

Articles

License

The authors retain copyright of articles. They authorise AEDEAN to publish them in its journal Atlantis and to include them in the indexing and abstracting services, academic databases and repositories the journal participates in.

Under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), for non-commercial (i.e., personal or academic) purposes only, users are free to share (i.e., copy and redistribute in any medium or format) and adapt (i.e., remix, transform and build upon) articles published in Atlantis, free of charge and without obtaining prior permission from the publisher or the author(s), as long as they give appropriate credit to the author, the journal (Atlantis) and the publisher (AEDEAN), provide the relevant URL link to the original publication and indicate if changes were made. Such attribution may be done in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the journal endorses the user or their use of the material published therein. Users who adapt (i.e., remix, transform or build upon the material) must distribute their contributions under the same licence as the original.

Self-archiving is also permitted, so that authors are allowed to deposit the published PDF version of their articles in academic and/or institutional repositories, without fee or embargo. Authors may also post their individual articles on their personal websites, again on condition that the original link to the online edition is provided.

Authors are expected to know and heed basic ground rules that preclude simultaneous submission and/or duplicate publication. Prospective contributors to Atlantis commit themselves to the following when they submit a manuscript:

  • That no concurrent consideration of the same, or almost identical, work by any other journal and/or publisher is taking place.
  • That the potential contribution has not appeared previously, in any form whatsoever, in another journal, electronic format or as a chapter/section of a book.

Seeking permission for the use of copyright material is the responsibility of the author.