Teaching cats in Children’s Literature

Autor

  • Panagiotis Xouplidis School of Italian Language and Literature, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Aristotle University Campus, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2020.2.311.321

Słowa kluczowe:

Cat, Comparative Children´s Literature, Animal Studies, social stereotypes

Abstrakt

Aim. The aim of the research is the comparative study of literary cat characters in Children’s Literature texts in Greek and Spanish and their instructive function in the transmission of social stereotypes.

Methods. The research subscribes to the field of Literary Animal Studies based on the theory of Children’s Literature (Lukens, 1999) and through the intercultural perspective of Comparative Children’s Literature (O’Sullivan, 2005). Published children’s books from Greece, Spain and Spanish-speaking America were compared using textual analysis methods of Imagology (Beller & Leersen, 2007). Stereotyped variants were identified and organized in categories related to name, physical appearance, gender, behavior, and function of literary cat characters.

Results. After examining a corpus of 37 books, 23 in Greek and 17 in Spanish (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain), textual analysis findings were compared, organized, and classified by language, country and readers’ age groups to locate that literary cat characters are usually pets or feral, and they remain consistently stereotyped as anthropomorphic and subversive. Cats with seven lives and magical powers are common perceptions, dominating in both cultural contexts, stereotypes extended to strong superstitions about black cats.

Conclusions. In Children's Literature texts, cats are linguistically, literally, and socially defined literary constructs, can have usually human-like features, intercultural influences, and are potentially shaped by intertextual relations. They serve also as a narrative motif for the transmission of social values about non-human animals and the textual familiarization of nonadult readers with society’s cultural stereotypes.

 

##plugins.generic.usageStats.downloads##

##plugins.generic.usageStats.noStats##

Biogram autora

Panagiotis Xouplidis - School of Italian Language and Literature, Faculty of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Aristotle University Campus, 54124, Thessaloniki, Greece

Panagiotis Xouplidis holds a Ph.D in Comparative Literature (Greek-Spanish) and a Master’s degree in European Literature and Culture Studies by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. Has a Βachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Culture by the Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece, and a Βachelor’s degree in Mathematics by Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece. He has published articles and studies in conference proceedings and scientific journals in Greek, English, and Spanish. His research interests include comparative children's literature, Spanish and Spanish-American literature, translation studies, semiotics, literary animal studies, and ecocritisism. He is secretary general of the Hispanohelenic Union of Language and Culture, and of the Hellenic Semiotics Society.

Bibliografia

Albert, A., & Bulcroft, K. (1988). Pets, Families, and the Life Course. In Journal of Marriage and Family 50(2), 543-552.

Asquith, P.J. (1984). The inevitability and utility of anthropomorphism in description of primate behavior. In R. Harré & V. Reynolds (Eds.), The meaning of primate signals (pp.138-176). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Beller, M. & Leersen, J. (Eds) (2007). Imagology-The cultural construction and literary representation of national characters. Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi B.V.

Best, S. (2009). The Rise of Critical Animal Studies: Putting Theory into Action and Animal Liberation into Higher Education. In Journal for Critical Animal Studies 7 (1), 9-52.

Daston, L. & Mitman, G. (2005). Thinking with animals: New perspectives on Anthropomorphism. New York: Columbia University Press

Frye, N. (1957). Anatomy of Criticism-Four Essays. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

Lukens, R. J. (1999) A critical handbook of children’s literature. New York: Longman.

Μaass, A. & Arcuri, L. (1996). Language and Stereotyping. In C. N. Macrae, Ch. Stangor and M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and Stereotyping (pp.193-226). New York-London: The Guilford Press.

Mackie, DM., Hamilton, DL., Susskind, J., & Rosselli, F. (1996). Social Psychological Foundations of Stereotype Formation. In C. N. Macrae, Ch. Stangor and M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and Stereotyping (pp.41-78). New York-London: The Guilford Press.

Mullin, M., H. (1999) Mirrors and Windows: Sociocultural Studies of Human-Animal Relationships. In Annual Review of Anthropology 28, pp. 215-216

Nicolajeva, Μ. (2009). Devils, demons, familiars, and friends: Towards a Semiotics of the Literary cats. In Marvels and Tales 2, pp.248-267.

O'Sullivan, E. (2005). Comparative Children's Literature. London: Taylor and Francis.

Ortiz Robles, M. (2016). Literature and Animal Studies, New York: Routledge

Phillips, M.T. (1994). Proper Names and the Social Construction of Biography: The Negative Case of Laboratory Animals. In Qualitative Sociology 17(2), pp.119-142.

Sanders, C. R. (1990). The Animal ‘Other’: Self Definition, Social Identity and Companion Animals. In NA- Advances in Consumer Research 17, pp. 662-668.

Sheppard, P. (2003). The Pet World. In S. J. Armstrong, & R. G. Botzler (Eds.), The Animal Ethics Reader (pp.510-512). London & New York: Routledge.

Taylor, D. (1989). The ultimate cat book, London: Dorling Kindersley.

Van Vechten, C. (2000) The Tiger in the House, New York: Bartleby.

Walker-Meikle, K. (2012) Medieval pets. Woodbridge: Τhe Boydell Press.

Watts, R. J. (1981) The Pragmalinguistic Analysis of Narrative Texts. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Wozencraft, W.C. (2005). Species Felis catus. In D.E. Wilson, & Reeder, D.M. (Eds.) Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.) (pp.534–535). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Xouplidis, P. (2018), Through the eyes of the cat: an intercultural approach to the cat’s image in relation to social stereotypes in Greek and Hispanic children’s literature. Unpublished Doctoral thesis. Information and abstract available in https://www.didaktorika.gr/eadd/handle/10442/43377

Ζebrowitz, L.A. (1996). Physical Appearance as a Basis of Stereotyping. In C. N. Macrae, Ch. Stangor and M. Hewstone (Eds.), Stereotypes and Stereotyping (pp. 79-120). New York-London: The Guilford Press.

Zipes, J. D. (1991) Fairy Tales and the Art of subversion, New York: Routledge.

Oxford Learner’s Dictionary (n.d). Cat. Retrieved May, 29, 2020, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/cat_1?q=cat

Wikipedia (n.d). Cat. Retrieved May,29, 2020 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat

Meriam Webster Dictionary (n.d). Trickster. Retrieved May, 29, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/trickster

Pobrania

Opublikowane

2020-09-11

Jak cytować

Xouplidis, P. . (2020). Teaching cats in Children’s Literature. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 11(2), 311–321. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2020.2.311.321

Numer

Tom 11 Nr 2 (2020): Journal of Education Culture and Society

Dział

EXPRESSION

Licencja

CC-BY

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All authors agree for publishing their email adresses, affiliations and short bio statements with their articles during the submission process.