Hi everyone! Welcome again!

Today I would like to devote this entry to talk about a topic which I consider is quite interesting, “Subversive messages hidden under infant literature”. It came up a few days ago, in our lesson focused on Nursery rhymes. The lesson was divided into three stages. The first one was a kind of introductory stage. Raquel made us builders of our own knowledge using different techniques to discover what Nursery Rhymes are, its origin and which elements characterise it. Some of those techniques were: analysing typical nursery rhymes, such as Humpty Dumpty, and carrying out a “dictogloss”. Throughout the last stage we had so much fun dramatizing different types of choral reading with Nursery rhymes as the “Solo lines” (one by one).

Dramatizing “Little Jack Horner”

Although during the introductory stage, we dealt with the topic a little bit (Nursery rhymes were originally created to hide political subversive messages), it was at the 2^nd stage when we could be fully aware of what hidden subversive messages meant, through real examples. In other words, real Nursery Rhymes and the concrete hidden message that was under each of them.  One example of it was the Nursery Rhyme named “Mary, Mary, quite contrary”. Its main character, although children don’t know it and most of us either, is the daughter of Henry the 8th, and some of the objects which appear refer to instruments of torture.

Nursery Rhymes and the concrete hidden message that was under each of them.

It piques my curiosity, so I decided to investigate which was the situation of the topic nowadays. Understanding subversive books as those which awaken our rebel side, something that surprises me, was the number of authors that are in favour of these kinds of infant literary books.

A staunch supporter of them, and detractor of those which she considers “contain what adults have decided [children] have to know” (1998) is Alison Lurie. Her opinion is faithfully reflected in the title of her work Don’t tell the grown-ups. According to the writer Lucy Fuchs (1984), the appeal of these works lies in the fact that “they discuss problems that are foremost in many children’s minds and that they often feel they cannot discuss with their parents”. There are also Spanish writers who support this kind of books, as the Mexican Jaime Alfonso Sandoval. He argues that subversive books are necessary due to the fact that they “allow children in a way to expose their thoughts or fears in a symbolic way” as well as to know “the real world they will have to face” (Sandoval cited by Wences, 2008).

What do you think about it? If you don’t know it, I think it would be appropriate to devote a little bit of time to reflect on it, due to the fact that as teachers we will be one of the most influential person in our pupil’s literary life.

Some of the titles that the previously mentioned authors present as “subversives”

Lurie, A. (1998). Don’t tell the grown-ups: the subversive power of children’s literature. Little, Brown.

Fuchs, L. (1984). The Hidden Messages in Children’s Books.

Wences, M. (2008, 15 June). Los libros infantiles deben ser subversivos, asegura Jaime Alfonso Sandoval. La Jornada Guerrero. Recovered from: http://www.lajornadaguerrero.com.mx/2008/06/15/index.php?section=cultura&article=013n2cul