The Rise of New Realism PDF

Preview

Summary

Notes on Realism ...

Description

The Rise of New Realism 



Realism was a false edited version of reality. o Prior to the 1960’s, they appear to be realistic on the surface, but lots of parts were edited to suit people’s ideas about what would be good for a children’s audience. o There would also be differences in language uses.  Cuss words o Controversial social issues about society would also be left out.  Slavery  Japanese internment camps  Sexuality  Violence After Harriet the Spy publication, things started to change. o The novel had cuss words and the idea of lying.

What were the books that got this going?  The Outsiders by Susan Hinton in 1967 o Susan was a student in high school when she wrote this. o The novel addressed urban conflict in Tulsa, a strong Hispanic community. o What made it stand out?  One of the first books to acknowledge violence that kids experience in urban America.  Racism  Classism  Adult world vs. kid’s world. o Since the story focuses mostly on boys, the publishers required it to be published it under her initials so that boys would want to read it.

Leaders of the Rise of New Realism Judy Blume o Grew up in the suburbs in New Jersey. Her father was a dentist. o She took a class on how to write for kids and she had an assignment to write a chapter book. She based it partially on her growing up experiences in 1940. She wanted it to be more contemporary so moved the setting of her story up to the 1960’s. [autobiographical fiction]. o Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970)  About a girl getting her period  Autobiographical Fiction  She saw an add from Bloomsbury Press

Started by two men who were in children publishing business. They were beginning to think that children’s books were becoming unimportant because they weren’t as relative to what was going on today. They started their own publishing firm wanting to publish more contemporary books. The publishing world is still headquartered in New York City. They rented a space in New Jersey and Judy Blume saw their ad, so she submitted her manuscript Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. They published it just as it was without censoring anything. It became a best seller because the girls for whom it was intended and they promoted it among themselves. Then Again Maybe I wont  Boy growing up in inner city neighborhood. His father is a tinkerer and made a successful invention. They move into a new neighborhood and a bigger house. He misses his old friends, but realizes there’s a girl that lives next door to them and she doesn’t always pull down the window shade. His parents ask what he wants for his birthday and he asks for binoculars. He says he has become interested in bird watching. Deenie (1973)  About a girl who has scoliosis. The way you treat scoliosis is by doing a spinal fusion or by doing braces which you wear every day for six years. In Deenie, the gym teacher notices her spine seems unusual. The doctor says she needs to wear a brace. She becomes upset and self conscious about it. She wants to do the surgery first, but it was very serious. Deenie is trying to figure out why she got scoliosis. She thinks it’s because she ‘touched herself in a certain place’. She thinks because she masturbated, it caused her scoliosis. America didn’t like this being in children’s literature. Forever  A girl in her senior year of high school who have sex when they turn 18. She thinks they will be together forever, but she starts to get interested in another guy. The 1800’s  Big rise of censorship in Children’s books in America  The author with the most censured books in this time period were Judy Blume’s. Judy Blume and Mark West  Professor West wanted to write about the author’s defending their works. He went to New York and stayed with a friend so he could meet with Judy Blume. He met to interview another famous author the following day. He showed up at Judy’s apartment and 

o

o

o

o

o

they spent the whole day talking. He realized with talking to her that she wasn’t trying to rock the boat, she was just trying to be true to her own childhood and what children’s experiences would truly be. 





Norma Klein o Father was a psychologist. She grew up in New York City. o Mom, The Wolf Man and Me (1972)  Deals with a girl whose mother is a famous photographer. The mom never married and the girl doesn’t know who her father was. The mom finds a boyfriend who has two Irish wolfhounds. The daughter tries to sabotage it at first. Then the wolf man starts spending the night.  This became censored because:  The other was never married  The acknowledgement that the mother has a sex life  Norma didn’t like that she was being censored so she took it on to write about everything that she shouldn’t. o No More Saturday Nights  A boy who has a girlfriend that gets pregnant. She wants to give the baby up for adoption, but the father gets custody and raises it while he goes to college. Alice Childress o A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich (1973)  First book for kids to deal with drug use. The boy in the novel becomes addicted to Heroin. He goes into treatment for it. He has a nice stepfather who is doing his best to help him. The boy gets realeased from treatment and he is supposed to see his councelor every week. The stepfather is always there to help the boy. The boy is supposed to meet him on a corner in Harlem. The stepfather is waiting at him and he’s a little late. That’s the end of the novel.  This book is a good example of New realism because it:  Deals with drug use  Has an ambiguous ending, rather than a happy one. Robert Cormier o He was a journalist covering the crime of where he lived in Massachusetts. One of his sons came home one day and the school he was going to was having a fundraiser. His son said he just didn’t feel like it and asked if it was okay if he didn’t have to sell it. This got Robert’s imagination going for his novel The Cholocate War. o The Chocolate War (1974)  The boy ends up not selling the chocolate, but the Priest that ran his school and his teachers try to make hi sell the chocolate and he keeps refusing. It becomes a struggle of defiance. In the end,  His endings were depressing and felt like they hit you in the gut....