‘The Other’ – a threat or a resource? Polar interpretations of two children’s stories: ‘The ugly duckling’ by H.C. Andersen and ‘Raspberry Juice’ by H. Shenhav

In recent years, The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade, a difficult work and for long an unjustly neglected one, has begun to command increasingly greater critical attention and esteem. As more than one contemporary writer has noted, the verdict of the late Richard Chase in 1949, that the novel represents Melville's “second best achievement,” has served to prompt many to undertake a second reading (or at least a first) of the book. Before this time, the novel had traditionally been the one Melville readers have shied away from—as overly discursive, too rambling altogether, on the one hand, or as an unfortunate outgrowth of the author's morbidity on the other. Elizabeth Foster, in the admirably comprehensive introduction to her valuable edition of The Confidence-Man (1954), systematically traces the history of the book's reputation and observes that even with the Melville renaissance of the twenties, the work stands as the last piece of the author's fiction to be redeemed. Only lately, she comments, has it ceased to be regarded as “the ugly duckling” of Melville's creations. But recognition does not imply agreement, and it should not be thought that in the past fifteen years critics have reached any sort of unanimity on the novel's content. Since Mr. Chase's study, which approached the puzzling work as a satire on the American spirit—or, more specifically, as an attack on the liberalism of the day—and which speculated upon the novel's controlling folk and mythic figures, other critics, by now ready to assume that the book repaid careful analysis, have read the work in a variety of ways. It has been treated, among other things, as a religious allegory, as a philosophic satire on optimism, and as a Shandian comedy. One critic has conveniently summarized the prevailing situation by remarking that “the literary, philosophical, and cultural materials in this book are fused in so enigmatic a fashion that its interpreters have differed as to what the book is really about.”

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The Greedy Hippo and Red Riding Hood: The grotesque in fairy tales

Literator ◽

10.4102/lit.v33i1.22 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dineke Van der Walt

Keyword(s):

Fairy Tales ◽

The Other ◽

Warning Messages ◽

Little Red Riding Hood ◽

Human Flesh ◽

Children's Stories ◽

The Voice ◽

Gain Access ◽

The Grotesque

This article presents a comparative reading of two folktales that are also characterised as children’s stories (one from Venda folklore and the other a popular European narrative) in order to explore a number of similarities between these stories. These similarities include the grotesque activity of eating human flesh, the way that overly trusting people are tricked by means of a masquerade and other ‘unethical’ and ‘immoral’ activities that occur in both narratives. In The Greedy Hippo (Hippopotamus throws his weight around), the monster for instance mimics the voice of a little boy in order to trick his sister and gain access to the children’s hut, whilst in Little Red Riding Hood the wolf tricks the grandmother in the same way to gain access to her house, in order to later trick Red Riding Hood. Furthermore, in both stories, the little girls (as well as the grandmother in Little Red Riding Hood) are swallowed by vicious wild animals (either a hippopotamus or a wolf). As is often the case in fairy tales; however, the victims are saved or escape and live happily ever after. In this article, I argue that, although it seems absurd for children’s stories to deal with the grotesque, the presence of the grotesque actually serves an elevating purpose. I conclude that, because of the shock value of the grotesque, these stories not only intrigue children emotionally, but that the shocking quality of the grotesque also serves as a source of fascination for them. Therefore, the warning messages contained in the stories are more persuasively communicated and better remembered by the child audience.

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‘Grammaticus ludens’: Theological Aspects of Langland's Grammatical Allegory

Traditio ◽

10.1017/s0362152900003949 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 40 ◽

pp. 251-296 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Samuel A. Overstreet

Keyword(s):

Middle Ages ◽

Rule Of Law ◽

Literary Tradition ◽

Piers Plowman ◽

The Other ◽

The Rule Of Law ◽

Detailed Explanation ◽

Ugly Duckling ◽

History Of ◽

Technical Terms

The grammatical allegory of Piers Plowman C, Passus 3, has aptly been designated ‘the ugly duckling of the C revision.’ Since Skeat's day the passage has been described as ‘tedious and puerile,’ ‘irrelevant,’ ‘unintelligible and barren of all interest.’ More recently, John Alford's admirable article on the history of grammatical metaphor has situated the passage in a long literary tradition, and thus opened the way for an appreciation of its virtues, however strange they may seem to moderns. From the goliardic song to the sermon, from venality-satire to the Donatus moralizatus, authors throughout the Middle Ages built wordplays and metaphors, sometimes extended ones, on the technical terms of Latin grammar. For the medieval preacher, various kinds of pride go before a casus, or fall: pride of name (nominative), pride of descent (genitive), pride of wealth and munificence (dative), and so on; for the goliard, one becomes genitivus as a result of too much bedroom conjugation For Langland's grammatical allegory, though, critics have had less success explaining the use of grammatical terms and doctrines. Alford gives a brief five-page treatment to the passage, focusing mainly on the analogy between grammatical rules and the rule of law; although he aptly notes the punning use of terms such as ‘kynde’ for the Incarnation and ‘case’ for a legal suit, he does not address the use of ‘relacion rect and indirect’ or ‘adiectyf and sustantyf’ around which the passage is built. On the other hand, the article which gives the most detailed explanation of Langland's grammatical doctrines still has trouble relating them to the exempla of husband and wife, master and laborer, and son and servant, and even to the key notions of meed and mercede, confessing in places that ‘Conscience's precise intentions must remain a mystery.’

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Say it well, say it often

Ubiquity ◽

10.1145/3473502 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (July) ◽

pp. 1-5

Author(s):

Philip Yaffe

Keyword(s):

The Other ◽

Ugly Duckling

Each "Communication Corner" essay is self-contained; however, they build on each other. For best results, before reading this essay and doing the exercise, go to the first essay "How an Ugly Duckling Became a Swan," then read each succeeding essay. Two people can give a speech on exactly the same subject, using almost exactly the same information, yet one speech will be a brilliant success and the other a dismal failure. How does this happen? Many factors contribute to success or failure, but only one factor virtually guarantees that your speech will stand out like a shining light or be clothed in darkness like a burned-out bulb.

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Social Justice in the Fiction Series of 'Mata' Okky Madasari for Girl's Education

KnE Social Sciences ◽

10.18502/kss.v4i10.7377 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Ary Budiyanto ◽

Latifah .

Keyword(s):

Social Justice ◽

The Other ◽

Post Colonial ◽

Sociological Approach ◽

Eastern Indonesia ◽

Other World ◽

Children's Stories ◽

Global World

How is the life of the East Indonesia ’world’ seen by a small Javanese women with her cosmopolitan glasses? Okky Madasari, the winner of the Equator Literary Award 2012, created a series of fantasy stories about the adventures of Mata, her mother and her imaginary friends as they explore areas far from the bustle of Jakarta. This article examines the first three novels in the series: Mata di Tanah Melus (which represents the culture of East Nusa Tenggara); Mata dan Rahasia Pulau Gapi (set in Ternate, North Maluku); and Mata dan Manusia Laut (which tells the story of Mata’s adventures in Bajo, Southeast Sulawesi). The exotic world seen through Mata’s eyes draws upon the post-colonial discourses which continue to influence Indonesian girls in the modern, global world of capitalism. This is contrasted with the narration of the Mother and miraculous friends of Mata in seeing ’the other world and others’ in the eastern tip of Indonesia. This study uses a sociological approach to literature to uncover the issues of inequality and social justice that occur in post-colonial eastern Indonesia. Okky and his Mata series show that embodying Indonesianness is the task of a maturing imagination which develops upon ideals of the nation’s children. The series encourages little girls like Mata to open their eyes to see the history, reality and direction of their country and nation. Keywords: girl’s education, social justice, children’s stories

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Deliberation and Decision in the Magna Moralia and Eudemian Ethics

10.1093/oso/9780198817277.003.0012 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Karen Margrethe Nielsen

Keyword(s):

The Other ◽

Nicomachean Ethics ◽

Test Case ◽

Ugly Duckling ◽

Eudemian Ethics

The Magna Moralia has long been the ugly duckling in the Aristotelian pond, shunned on account of its ungainly composition, flat-footed argument, and peculiar linguistic habits. In this essay, I examine one influential argument against its authenticity, namely the hypothesis that the author of the MM was a student or a later compendium writer, attempting to reconstruct the argument of the Eudemian Ethics or Nicomachean Ethics. My test case is the analyses of deliberation (bouleusis) and decision (prohairesis) in the three ethics. I argue that the MM diverges on important points from the EE and the EN, and that even an inept compendium writer or note taker could not have extracted the analysis in the MM from the other treatises. I conclude that the MM may resemble the EE because the former is an early and immature version of the latter.

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Narrative models in Tolkien's stories of middle-earth

Journal of English Studies ◽

10.18172/jes.84 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 7 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jaume Albero Poveda

Keyword(s):

Fairy Tale ◽

Literary Tradition ◽

The Other ◽

Lord Of The Rings ◽

Other Hand ◽

Study And Teaching ◽

The Subject ◽

The One ◽

Children's Stories

In The Lord of the Rings (1954), there is an attempt to unite the two worlds which captivated Tolkien’s imagination: the fairy tale world of children’s stories which he was drawn to as a child, and the sagas and medieval myths that were the subject of his study and teaching at university. The hobbits are where these two narrative universes meet. In The Lord of the Rings, these two worlds, being difficult to reconcile, collide. On the one hand, we have the hobbits, those everymen with whom the reader can identify easily. They are characters created in The Hobbit (1937) that have a narrative world of their own, as in fairytales, and that are generated with a low mimetic mode. On the other hand, we have the chivalric heroes with a great literary tradition, who belong to the high mimetic mode. Tolkien’s fiction is less successful in those episodes in which the hobbits are absent.

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School at Maningrida and Its Outstations

The Aboriginal Child at School ◽

10.1017/s0310582200012931 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 11 (4) ◽

pp. 60-61

Author(s):

Rita Djitmu

Keyword(s):

Aboriginal People ◽

School Transition ◽

The Other ◽

Old People ◽

White Children ◽

Working Together ◽

Children's Stories ◽

Aboriginal Children ◽

Aboriginal Languages

Maningrida is in coastal Amhemland, and it is two hundred miles east of Darwin. Maningrida is an Aboriginal settlement. There are two hundred people living at the settlement now, because some Aboriginal people have moved into outstations.There are one hundred children going to school at the settlement now. In school we have eight classes, and each class has one balanda teacher and one Aboriginal teacher. We have two pre-schools. One is a Kunividji class, the other one is for Aboriginal children who don’t speak Kunividji, and the white children go there too.Well, we have three Kunividji classes altogether. Pre-school, transition and year one. There are four Aboriginal teachers teaching in Aboriginal languages. One class is where Nancy Gununwanga, an Aboriginal teacher and Brett Westblade, a balanda teacher, both teach in Kunividji. Laurie Magaldagi and Mellanie Mamariyi and myself, we three Aboriginal teachers, teach with little children from preschool and infants. We three Aboriginal girls are working together with Peter Jones. He is a balanda teacher. Nancy Gununwanga takes her own class, 11 or 12 year olds.We also have two other Aboriginal girls working with the linguist, Kim Djibama and Lena Djabiba. They take a tape and record the children’s stories about what they had been doing during the holidays and weekends. After each class has been recorded, they listen to the tape and then write the story down. Later they print it in a book, and it is used for children to read, or sometimes they go around the camp and sit with old people and get a story from them about olden times of their life.

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Pass It On! by M. Sadler

The Deakin Review of Children s Literature ◽

10.20361/g2zw3f ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Maria Tan

Keyword(s):

Young Children ◽

Good Reason ◽

Comic Book ◽

Shared Reading ◽

The Other ◽

Ball Rolling ◽

Original Message ◽

Children's Stories ◽

The University ◽

Traditional Game

Sadler, Marilyn. Pass It On! Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2012. Print.Marilyn Sadler enjoys writing funny children’s stories and has authored over 30 books. Through her role as executive producer and writer for the Disney Channel, Sadler has seen some of her works turned into children’s movies and TV series. In Pass It On! Sadler puts a new spin on the traditional game of Telephone, with comical results.‘Cow is stuck in the fence! Pass it on!’ Cow’s friend, Bee starts the ball rolling, sending out a plea to the other animals, recruiting their help to rescue Cow. The original message quickly gets distorted and becomes increasingly absurd, leaving the reader wondering: will anyone come to Cow’s aid?With its simple plot and humorous characters, this story is fun, engaging, and perfect for shared reading with young children. Michael Slack, recognized for his humorous character art, shines in this illustrated work. He is skillful in his use of colour and texture, creating expressive depictions of the animals in the story while conveying a sense of urgency and excitement. The typeset used for the comic-book-like speech bubbles differentiates the characters’ speech from narrative aspects of the story and cues the reader to the tone and dynamic of the animals’ pronouncements.I recently read this to a group of four and five-year-olds, after playing the Telephone game with them. Throughout the story, the children responded with exclamations of, “That’s not right!” and a chorus of, “Pass it on!” as each animal communicated his or her misinterpretation of the message.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Maria TanMaria is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta’s H. T. Coutts Education Library. She enjoys travelling and visiting unique and far-flung libraries. An avid foodie, Maria’s motto is, “There’s really no good reason to stop the flow of snacks”.

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Stromatoporoids from the Famennian (Devonian) Wabamun Formation, Normandville oilfield, north–central Alberta, Canada

Journal of Paleontology ◽

10.1017/s0022336000018321 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 62 (03) ◽

pp. 411-419 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Colin W. Stearn

Keyword(s):

Patch Reef ◽

Abundant Species ◽

The Other ◽

North Central ◽

Biotic Crisis

Stromatoporoids are the principal framebuilding organisms in the patch reef that is part of the reservoir of the Normandville field. The reef is 10 m thick and 1.5 km2in area and demonstrates that stromatoporoids retained their ability to build reefal edifices into Famennian time despite the biotic crisis at the close of Frasnian time. The fauna is dominated by labechiids but includes three non-labechiid species. The most abundant species isStylostroma sinense(Dong) butLabechia palliseriStearn is also common. Both these species are highly variable and are described in terms of multiple phases that occur in a single skeleton. The other species described areClathrostromacf.C. jukkenseYavorsky,Gerronostromasp. (a columnar species), andStromatoporasp. The fauna belongs in Famennian/Strunian assemblage 2 as defined by Stearn et al. (1988).

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