Writing Multicultural
Fiction for Children (Part 2)
By Eugie Foster
Last week, Eugie Foster invited readers along on the beginning steps to
writing multicultural fiction. This week, she advises writers on cultural
sensitivity and the use of folklore in writing for children.
Cultural Sensitivity
We are conditioned from birth to acquire social competence in a single culture:
our own. While beneficial sociologically, it can leave us with preconceived
notions that even the most conscientious and well-meaning may not be aware of.
In order to avoid imbuing our writing with unwitting prejudice, writers of
children's multicultural fiction need to methodically scrutinize these
boundaries for possible cultural bias.
Writers should take care not to imply that another culture is backward,
primitive, or inferior, and also avoid treating unfamiliar practices as exotic
or peculiar. Bear in mind that your stories are a reflection of your
protagonist's life and that he or she is an individual. Don't assign general
personality traits or behaviors to an entire group of people.
Familiarize yourself with the fundamentals of a culture before writing about it.
Take pains to learn and understand its history, values, belief systems, and the
behavioral expectations of its members. While errors of representation are the
most glaring, errors of omission are in many ways more insidious.
To illustrate: Many writers do not realize that something as basic as normative
eye contact varies dramatically across cultures. The European-American or
"white" convention mandates that listeners maintain a relatively steady gaze on
the speaker while the speaker makes intermittent eye contact with listeners.
Children are taught that it is disrespectful, an indication of straying
attention, to let their gaze wander when a speaker is addressing them(1).
Furthermore, direct eye contact is considered a sign of honesty and
sincerity(2).
However, among Native Americans, protracted, direct eye contact is typically
seen as invasive and rude, especially if directed at an elder(3). Likewise, in
Asian and Hispanic cultures, direct eye contact is considered disrespectful,
particularly if the speaker is in a position of authority or respect, or is
significantly older than the listener(4).
Even for African-Americans, who exhibit the same quantity of direct eye contact
as European-Americans, there are telling differences. When examined closely, the
listener-speaker eye contact pattern is the opposite of European-Americans. The
speaker regards the listener, while the listener tends to look away(5).
Now consider the different connotations the following sentence could have based
on cultural settings: "Susie did not hesitate to meet Grandfather's gaze." Is
Susie's behavior indicative of her truthfulness and sincerity? Or is she being
insolent and hostile?
It is also difficult, and in some cases, impossible, to explore a culture
without its religion coming into play. If you're drawing your inspiration from
folklore, religious beliefs often have an indispensable role in storylines and
themes.
Be aware that there are certain animals, objects, or practices which are taboo
or sacred in nearly every religion. For example, Buddhists and Hindus are
prohibited from eating meat, Friday is a holy day for Muslims, and Sikhs are
forbidden to drink wine or smoke tobacco. And then there are those behaviors
which aren't precisely illicit, but through superstition and custom may as well
be. The Japanese, for instance, consider it unlucky to the point of unthinkable
to stick chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice at the dinner table; it's how
offerings are made to the dead.
However, while these cultural differences generate pitfalls to be avoided-- as
factual errors--they can also be enriching details to incorporate into your
work. Highlighting and celebrating diversity in behavior and belief can bring an
unfamiliar culture into crisp
focus for readers.
What are Publishers Looking For?
The demand for multicultural children's literature is high in response to a
dearth of good material. Publishers are especially interested in contemporary
stories that explore issues that today's diverse population of children are
encountering. However, as more writers jump on the multicultural bandwagon, some
niches are getting filled faster than others. In an interview in 2004(6),
publishers contended that while books about Asian cultures were on the rise,
they weren't seeing a corresponding growth in books about Hispanic cultures, and
that Latinos were "almost totally unrepresented."
Likewise, the interest in world folktales has decreased since the initial
"boom," although it is still a rich field to mine. Magazine markets remain
receptive to them, in some cases keenly enthusiastic (e.g., the Cricket Magazine
Group), and while some multicultural children's book publishers (e.g., Lee & Low
Books) expressly state in their guidelines that they are not seeking folktales,
others (e.g., All About Kids Publishing) confirm they are. Also, publishers
remain interested in story collections and folktales from less well-known
cultures.
As in all avenues of publishing, it's always advisable for writers to explore
new terrain and break stereotypes, even in an arena as receptive as
multicultural literature. Stories about wealthy African-Americans and
middle-class Hispanics will be more likely to interest an editor than another
story about working class Latinos, for example.
Folktales as Children's Literature
Speculative fiction writers attracted to children's multicultural fiction are
often drawn to folktales-- stories steeped in cultural identity, magical fantasy
elements, and that seem readymade for a young audience. However, as any
folklorist will be quick to point out, up until the nineteenth century,
folktales were told and read by adults(7).
Traditionally, folklore was an expression of how early peoples perceived nature,
their social order, and as an escapist manifestation of their fears, needs, and
desires. As such, folklore is rife with depictions of cannibalism, human
sacrifice, torture, child abuse, and violence(8). The popular folk and fairy
tales that contemporary society views as kids' fare are highly sanitized
adaptations which, in the process of being stripped of inappropriate content,
have also had distinctive cultural characteristics filtered out.
It is the task of children's writers who rework folktales to make them suitable
for and accessible to their target audience while maintaining cultural
authenticity. To that purpose, some stories lend themselves better to a young
readership than others. Animal tales, stories featuring a clever or trickster
protagonist, and fairy stories, are typically more approachable fare than, say,
folktales about eating dead people or father-daughter incest.
At the same time, some folktales which would seem ideal for children may not get
a positive reception from publishers. Editors are generally uninterested in
didactic tales, rightly supposing that today's young people will not tolerate
stories that preach or lecture. Yet, so much folklore, at its core, is intended
to provide insight into the mechanisms of the natural world. How to balance this
instructional tradition with the dictates of marketing may seem a daunting
undertaking, but this has forever been the domain and challenge of the
storyteller. Remember, our primary objective is, and has always been, to
entertain.
Recommended Folktale and Mythology Resources
Here are some excellent online sources to set you off on your world folktale and
mythology adventure:
The Baldwin
Project (www.mainlesson.com/main/displayfeature.php)
A compendium of resources for parents and teachers, including public domain
texts of children's literature: nursery rhymes, fables, folk tales, myths,
legends, and fairy tales.
Encyclopedia Mythica (www.pantheon.org)
The Internet
encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. Articles are categorized into
mythology or folklore areas, with mythology further divided into geographical
regions and folklore broken down into "general folklore," "Arthurian legends,"
and "folktales."
Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts,
edited and/or
translated by D. L. Ashliman (www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html)
D. L. Ashliman is
the author of A Guide to Folktales and Folk and Fairy Tales : A
Handbook. His site has a very comprehensive collection of world folktales
sorted by thematic/plot classification.
Godchecker: Your Guide to the Gods (www.godchecker.com)
An encyclopedic
collection of world pantheons, spirits, demons, and saints, conveyed with a
light, tongue-in-cheek tone.
Internet Sacred Text Archive (www.sacred-texts.com)
A huge compilation
of public domain texts about religion, mythology, legends and folklore, and
occult and esoteric topics-- some hard to find or unique to the Internet. As per
their About Us: "In particular, comprehensive translations of the Shinto texts,
the Kalevala, the Upanishads, and the Rig Veda have never appeared anywhere else
on the Net, to our knowledge. The African and Polynesian texts are also unique
to this site."
Myths and
Legends (www.myths.com/pub/myths/myth.html)
A large and nicely
organized collection of links to world mythology and legends,
fairy and folktales, and essay sites, sorted and organized by geographical
region, with commentary by Christopher B. Siren.
REFERENCES
1 Kochman, T. (1981). Black and white: Styles in conflict. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
2 Stewart, E.C. & Bennett, M.J. (1991). American cultural patterns: A
cross-cultural perspective. Revised Edition. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural
Press, Inc.
3 Darnell, R. (1988). Implications of Cree interactional Etiquette.
Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Alberta.
4 La France, M. & Mayo, C. (1975, April). Communication breakdown: The role of
nonverbal behavior in interracial encounters. Paper presented at the
International Communication Association Convention, Chicago.
5 Johnson, K.R. (1976). Black kinesics: Some non-verbal communication patterns
in the Black culture. In L.A. Samovar & R.E. Porter (Eds.), Intercultural
communication: A reader (pp. 259-268). Belmont, California: Wadsworth
Publishing Company.
6 Scharer, P.L. (2004, September). Trends in Publishing Multicultural and Global
Children?s Literature: Conversations with Four North American Publishers. Paper
presented at the 29th International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY)
World Congress, Cape Town, South Africa. Retrieved 6/12/2006 from
http://www.sacbf.org.za/2004 papers/Patricia Scharer.rtf.
7 Shavit, Z. (1989). "The Concept of Childhood and Children's Folktale: Test
Case - Little Red Riding Hood." In A. Dundes (Ed.), Little Red Riding Hood:
A Casebook (pp. 129-158). Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press.
8 Zipes, J. (1979). Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk &
Fairy Tales. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.
Eugie Foster
calls home a mildly haunted, fey-infested house in Metro Atlanta that she shares
with her husband, Matthew, and her pet skunk, Hobkin. She has sold over a dozen
stories to the Cricket Magazine Group, including Spider, Cricket, and Cicada, as
well as to an assortment of other publications for young readers including Story
Station, Shiny, and the young adult anthology Magic in the Mirrorstone (Mirrorstone
Books). She holds an M.A. in developmental psychology, has co-authored a
textbook resource on child development, and is a frequent speaker at
Dragon*Con's Young Adult Literature Track. Her articles and interviews have
appeared in Strange Horizons, Fantasy Magazine, the Internet Review of Science
Fiction, Writing-World, and Absolute Write. She is also the managing editor of
the short fiction and poetry review magazine, The Fix, published by TTA Press.
Visit her online at www.eugiefoster.com.
