In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Lone Voices in the Crowd: The Limits of Murticurturalism by Brian Alderson Before attending to my theme, I should Kke to acknowledge the honour of being asked to open the debate on "Cross-culturalism in Children's Literature." As I see It, in choosing a Trinldadian to inaugurate the Conference's first-night reception with storytelling, and in choosing an Englishman to give the first address, ChLA Is clearly illustrating the point of this year's topic and I am both proud and abashed to share these Initial responsibilities with Rita Cox. We colonials in our offshore islands are a long way from the bright, pulsing homeland of children's literature studies and It is something of an ordeal to present what may seem a rather caAow body of Ideas to those of you at the sophisticated centres of New Thought. Moreover, speaking for my own country, I must confess that the notion of a Children's Literature Association is something which te likely to evoke Ironic smiles rather than ful-hearted enthusiasm. This Is not just because the British prefer to create children's literature rather than to write or confer about It; It is also because we have a rooted mistrust of haufeig children's literature Into Schools of Learning. One British commentator (who wM figure significantly at a later stage In this paper) has remarked that he sees "RMe future for the academic critic making an exhaustive study of Angst In the writings of William Mayne'-wherefore I find It slightly unnerving to represent my country before an organization for whom 'Angst In the writings of William Mayne" is possibly an Issue of crucial Interest. I had therefore hoped to placate you by beginning my dtecusslon with a quotation from an English "touchstone"-for here, I thought, I would be able to lay before you at once a piece of children's Rterature and one which had the ChLA seal of critical approval. Unfortunately, though, not many modern British writers have achieved the splendid status accorded the concocters of books like A Wrinkle In Time, and the best that I have been able to do is to find a passage from an author who does not seem to be a touchstone but who Is at least a phoenix. So here, by way of Introduction, is a quotation from Rosemary SutcMffs The Lantern Bearers (1959). It comes from the chapter where Roman Aqulla, now a slave at Ullasfjord, sees the Viking Thormod about to throw a scroll onto the fire, hie stops him, and explains to him what It Is that he is about to destroy: It Is a book, ft is as though the words of a man were caught and set down on a long roll, In those smaN black marks, so that other men may take them up at another time and In another place-maybe long after the speaker is dead-and speak them again. So they ask him to say the words that are there: Aqulla hesitated for a moment of hot rebellion. Why should he lay the mind-riches of the civilized world before these barbarians who spat on their house-place floor and ate and slept Ike swine? Then he put out his hand and took the beautiful piece of scribe's work that the old man held out to him. The words looked up at him famiKarty as he opened it. It was the Ninth book of The Odyssey-a Latin translation. . . . Now he translated again, haltingly, as he read, Into the Saxon tongue. You may take that. If you care for the phrase, as a multicultural experience. A Greek text has been translated Into Latin and Is now being relayed by a Romano-Briton to Norsemen in their own language-and since there Is a commonalty of experience between Odysseus and these northern seafarers, there is a sudden recognition of the magic by which the "small black marks" bring alive the voice of a dead man. What is of particular consequence for us here, however, is the fact that Homer Is not being absorbed from the written page but from AquRa's halting translation. A sophisticated mode of discourse...

pdf

Share