Performance of Children's Literature Spring 2025

What’s Next?

Read

Thomas, Ebony Elizabeth. “Is ‘Huck Finn’ Still Relevant? Revisiting ‘The Case for Conflict.’”

The English Journal 106, no. 2 (2016): 85–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26450215.

Get article at Brooklyn Library

If the direct login link doesn’t work- search the Brooklyn College Library directly.

What do you think?

Over this and the last module you’ve seen a few different approaches to ‘problematic’ literature:

  • Rudyard Kipling: mostly his books have fallen away to the history of time except for The Jungle Book in it’s Disney film version.
  • Doctor Dolittle: Bowdelerizing the text to make it ‘acceptable’ OR adapting it so that only the name and talking to the animals remain.
  • Disney Plus: Adding a content warning
  • Peter Pan: Reworking in ways that the character(s) have come to have a distinct life removed from their origin texts.
  • Little Black Sambo: Total Bans or efforts to reclaim the story.

hat do you think of these various materials? Were you familiar with any of them in some form? Were there things to like about the different pieces that you read even though there were problems? Do you see nostalgia as playing a role in this? What do you think we should do with problematic art and culture?

Go back
End the module with vocal exercises

3 responses to “What’s Next?”

  1. Synphanie Mojica Avatar
    Synphanie Mojica

    I was familiar in the sense that I heard about a lot of these stories and characters over time, but I never watched any of them. I did enjoy many elements of these stories, and I think that most of them are worthwhile in some ways, so they should continue to evolve and expand to other time periods and cultures, through adaptions and variations. However, even if problematic, original works should continue to be accessible, so that we can learn from the history and issues within them, instead of just erasing or whitewashing the past. Nostalgia plays a role in these movies and books because people tend to view things from childhood with more emotion and intensity, and the feelings that this culture evoked in them at the time, which may be why it’s hard for them to view the works more critically. Therefore, I think that it’s important to keep learning about and exploring these works, while providing context, especially to children.

    Reply
  2. Synphanie Mojica Avatar
    Synphanie Mojica

    I was familiar in the sense that I heard about a lot of these stories and characters over time, but I never watched any of them. I did enjoy many elements of these stories, and I think that most of them are worthwhile in some ways, so they should continue to evolve and expand to other time periods and cultures, through adaptations and variations. However, even if problematic, original works should continue to be accessible, so that we can learn from the history and issues within them, instead of just erasing or whitewashing the past. Nostalgia plays a role in these movies and books because people tend to view things from childhood with more emotion and intensity, and the feelings that this culture evoked in them at the time, which may be why it’s hard for them to view the works more critically. Therefore, I think that it’s important to keep learning about and exploring these works, while providing context, especially to children.

    Reply
  3. Leslie Talavera Avatar
    Leslie Talavera

    I honestly believe that all these stories and their backgrounds are dark considering how they have small racist things around them. and although they may try to erased these problematic stories it still wouldn’t change how to negatively affected people

    Reply

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