demonstrated the almost universally reactionary views on race, gender and class,
together with a political conservatism, that informed most British children’s books of the
time, and Robert Leeson (1977) came up with similar findings. The Writers and Readers
Publishing Co-operative (1979) drew attention to the racism inherent in a number of
children’s classics and one or two highly rated more modern books, and examined sex
roles and other stereotyping.
In order to respond to what was seen as the bias in children’s fiction, it was argued
that books should be written with working-class, or female or black protagonists. In this
way working-class, anti-racist and anti-sexist values would be promoted. Thus, in 1982
Dixon drew up what was essentially an annotated book list of ‘stories which show a
positive, overall attitude with regard to sex roles, race and social class’ (Dixon 1982:3),
though he also insisted that the books should meet ‘literary’ standards that were
essentially Leavisite. Such initiatives have multiplied in recent years and the practical
outcome has been a proliferation of series aimed particularly at the teenage market, and
the emergence of writers like Petronella Breinburg, Robert Leeson and Jan Needle in
Britain, and Rosa Guy, Julius Lester, Louise Fitzhugh and Virginia Hamilton in the
USA, who have offered different perspectives and attempted to redress the balance.
As has been indicated, the debate was essentially about representation, and ‘literary
standards’ per se were not generally challenged. Thus more complex considerations of
the ways in which ideology is inscribed in texts did not enter into the equation, nor did
considerations of the complexity of reader response. What such initiatives did do,
however, was to point out that all texts incorporated value positions, and that after all,
as John Stephens has observed, ‘Writing for children is usually purposeful’ (Stephens
1992:3)
It was therefore not long before questions were raised about the grounds of the
judgements made about the quality of children’s books, and that in turn relates to a
wider consideration of such questions with regard to literary criticism as a whole.
The Development of Criticism of Children’s Fiction: the Leavisite
ParadigmThe criticism of children’s fiction has been something of a poor relation in critical
studies. For the first two-thirds of twentieth century there was little written that
addressed the subject, and in an interesting article Felicity Hughes (1978/1990) offers
some analysis as to why this was the case. She argues that at the turn of the century
Henry James and others encapsulated the view that for the novel to fully come of age as
an art form it had to break free of its family audience. Since then the tendency has
increased to view writing for children as a ‘mere’ craft, not worthy of serious critical
attention. Reviewing and commentary focused on advising parents, librarians and other
interested adults on what to buy for children, or on advising teachers on how to
encourage and develop the reading habits of their pupils. And while critical judgements
were offered about the quality of the books, the criteria for such critical judgements were
assumed rather than debated. When surveys of the field were published they also
tended to sacrifice discussion of critical criteria to the need for comprehensive coverage.
42 THEORY AND CRITICAL APPROACHES