The Production and Use of the Globalized Child: Canadian Literary and Political Contexts

The papers included in this section were originally presented as part of a panel on "Disciplinary Definitions of 'the Child,'" hosted by the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP) at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities in Ottawa on 26 May 2009 and chaired by Margaret Steffler.

The 2006 controversy over Deborah Ellis's Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak focused public attention on attempts to influence and manipulate the production and consumption of Canadian children's literature in Ontario. The request of the Canadian Jewish Congress to limit access to Ellis's book, a nominee for the Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch Award, resulted in responses and action from school boards in Niagara, Essex, Toronto, York, and Ottawa-Carleton (Eaton). The intentions and motivations of the various individuals and groups involved or caught in the controversy were fairly straightforward: these included the author, a literary and social activist collecting and disseminating the voices of Palestinian and Israeli children; Groundwood Books, which, according to its website, attempts to "tell the stories of people whose voices are not always heard in this age of publishing by media conglomerates" ("About Us"); the Ontario Library Association, selecting books to be read and voted on by children in grades four to six; the Canadian Jewish Congress, in this case speaking out as a pressure group against what it considered to be inappropriate material; Canadian parents and educators, acting as advocates for children (Hill); children defending their freedom to read the books they choose (Freedman); and the Writers' Union of Canada decrying censorship ("Writers"). The responses of so many diverse players in the production, distribution, and consumption of this text reveal the extent to which defining "the child" is critical to an understanding of what constitutes children's literature—and, more specifically, Canadian children's literature.

The comments and agendas of the various individuals and organizations, while ostensibly formulated and promoted with the "good" of the child in mind, reflect the interests of those who are speaking "on behalf of" the child. Ellis's actions deliberately place herself and her work in the political arena of social activism. She generously donates royalties to various organizations, including Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, Street Kids International, and UNICEF ("About Deborah"; Jenkinson). As a writer of children's literature, Ellis is successfully and publicly grounding the words and sentences of humanism in the practical realm of humanitarianism, thus making a powerful connection between the word and the world. But these good intentions also raise uneasiness. The practice of fictionalizing and telling the stories of children in desperate situations in Malawi, Afghanistan, and Bolivia instigates uncomfortable feelings about the potential exploitation of the child's situation and voice.¹ Donating the profits from such stories to organizations that will benefit those whose stories are being told demonstrates to the reader and the public the material benefits and practical applications of literature. At the same time, however, the donations potentially free the author and reader from any discomfort or guilt that may arise as a result of consuming the miseries of the real children upon whom the fictional children are based. The recognition Ellis has received through the many awards and honours bestowed on her and her work, while well deserved, reflects a self-congratulatory "good" feeling of a public that believes it can vicariously make the world a better place through reading.² There is no question that Ellis is an influential and sincere writer who raises passionate awareness in her readers and makes a difference. Nevertheless, I want to examine the relationship between character and reader as constructed and developed by her fiction in order to open up a more general conversation about the use of the figure of the child in issues of social justice and political activism within Canadian children's literature, culture, and politics. I begin by noting that Ellis's work promotes the ideal of the globalized child, based on the problematic assumptions surrounding the supposed existence of the universal child.

Before elaborating on...