In the statement Children just don t mind having jam all over them it is important to consider what jam represents other than jam. In this essay I have interpreted jam to represent mess, dirt and scatological humour that John McKenzie states more and more children s literature is being published about CITATION McK05 l 1033 (McKenzie, 2005). Firstly, I will consider whether there is a difference between children and adults, and the effect this has on their respective literatures. I will argue, despite habitual educational imperatives, the primary focus of children s literature is, like adult novels, to entertain. I will then explore why jam and the further grubbiness it represents is enjoyable to children. I will explain, using a combination of Sigmund Freud CITATION Fre27 l 1033 (1927) and Julia Kristeva s CITATION Kri821 l 1033 (1982)theories, how children find disgusting things humorous in comparison to adults and, by applying Mikhail Bakhtin s CITATION McK05 l 1033 m Hal10(McKenzie, 2005 Hall, 2010) notions on the grotesque, that dirtiness can also be liberating for children under adult oppression in a world run by grown ups.

Peter Hunt CITATION Hun941 l 1033 (1994) attempts to unravel the differences between adult and children, and he appears to suggest that their fundamental difference is the fact that children have less experience of the world they live in they are free of responsibility and susceptible to education . In terms of their literature, Hunt CITATION Hun941 l 1033 (1994) emphasises considering children as developing readers . This suggests children s literature should differ from adult novels since they have a duty to inform and teach these developing readers . Fables and fairy-tales invariably carry explicit morals, and even longer novels series include complex messages on, for example democratic freedom and justice as in The Hunger Games series. Hunt CITATION Hun941 l 1033 (1994) goes as far as to state it is impossible for a children s book not to be educational . Although I would agree literature is important in aiding a child s education since they can practice reading and stimulate their imaginations, I would argue children s literature does not differ from adult fiction in the fact that both of their primary functions are to entertain. A child would not be encouraged to practice reading skills if everything they read was not enjoyable. This suggests that children s literature differs from adults , not in function, but in content. Different things entertain children and grown ups, and one of the foremost disparities is the former s unanimous delight in all things dirty, messy and scatological at the disapprobation of many adults.

One reason children enjoy the grubby jam aspects of life is because they find them funny. Shrek is rife with explicit references to boogies, flatulence and toilet humour, and is a spectacularly successful story and film across the world as is Dav Pilkey s series of novels The Adventures of Captain Underpants that include talking toilets and sneezes that cover vast areas in snot. Kristeva s CITATION Kri821 l 1033 (1982) essay Powers of Horror states her theories that bodily fluids represent a breaking of the boundaries of the self s clean body , that the sight of what was once Self but is now Other is uncannily unsettling. Yet this would suggest that scatological elements are scary, not humorous. I employ Freud s CITATION Fre27 l 1033 (1927) theories that humour is used to undermine the disturbing aspects of life, that it is essentially like declaring here is the world, which seems so dangerous! It is nothing but a game for children just worth making a jest about! Therefore, children find jam literature funny because it makes light of the abject horrors of bodily fluids and mess, arguably particularly troubling since children are at a point in their lives when they are learning about and learning to control their bodily functions.

However, it is arguable that adults share the same uncanny fear of bodily fluids that Kristeva CITATION Kri821 l 1033 (1982) explains, and thus should enjoy undermining it through scatological humour like children. Kristeva CITATION Kri821 l 1033 (1982) continues her theory to describe the development of two universes of the body s territory and universe of socially signifying performances where embarrassment, shame, guilt come into play . There is a further element of fear connected with abject horror constructed by the social world, which causes people to feel embarrassed by their bodily functions. As aforementioned, Hunt CITATION Hun941 l 1033 (1994) describes children as not yet fully moulded by the society their reside in, hence they are yet to feel the influence of socialised shame. Children are not ashamed of their bodies, just curious and unsure, using humour to navigate the unknown and uncanny world of their bodily functions. Shrek exemplifies this, as Jane Caputi CITATION Cap11 l 1033 (2011) explains, since Princess Fiona suffers daily anxiety over loosing her perfect body and being subjected to a more truthful, grubby one as an ogre. Yet it is an ogre, living in a swap away from rigid feudal society, that Fiona (and Shrek) are finally happy and without shame, in what Caputi CITATION Cap11 l 1033 (2011) describes as the happy body . Therefore, unlike grown ups and their literature, children can enjoy the humour of jam and bodily fluids without embarrassment.

The grubby aspects of children s literature also have an appeal beyond humour to children, unlike adults. Jordana Hall CITATION Hal10 l 1033 (2010) describes children as outsiders within an adult world , and are thus often restricted by the grown ups that look after them. Bakhtin s (1965) theories on the carnivaleque explain that through the grotesque and usually low or taboo aspects of like, Middle Age festivals for lower-class citizens temporarily allowed liberation from the strict structures of the Church and governing classes CITATION Hal10 l 1033 m McK05 (Hall, 2010 McKenzie, 2005). Both Hall CITATION Hal10 l 1033 (2010) and McKenzie CITATION McK05 l 1033 (2005) argue this is prevalent in children s literature, and I would agree the grotesque found in stories for children provides a form of liberation as well as humour. Alice is able to cry so much in Alice s Adventures in Wonderland that she creates and swims in a pool of her own tears, an excess of expression that is made clear was only possible due to the lack of punishment from an adult. The carnivalesque in Wonderland is largely in the form on nonsense and includes mess. The Hatter and Hare are described buttering a watch and dunking it in tea, as well as having a tea party at a table full of dirty, previously used crockery. Alice s increasing challenges of such ludicrous nonsense see her becoming the superior of the immature creatures she encounters, thus providing her with power she would not have within the real adult world. Therefore, mess through the carnivalesque can entertain children by providing them with freedom they would not receive anywhere else other than the world of children s literature.

Nevertheless, Maria Nikolajeva CITATION Nik00 l 1033 (2000) proposes most children s literature that displays a child gaining power through a Time-Out from the adult world invariably shows their return to it and their weak position in society. This is clear in Wonderland since Alice has to only wake up from her dream and she is located straight back in to a clean and structured world of her sister s authority where her sister brush[es] away some dead leaves on her face , and who almost immediately commands her to run in to your tea it s getting late . This suggests that the liberating powers of the carnivalesque and grotesque in children s literature are limited. I would argue this is a result of what Hunt and A. A. Milne CITATION Hun941 l 1033 (Hunt, 1994) describe as the key problem with children literature: that it is written by adults who manipulate books for children, perhaps to keep them controlled. Yet, the carnivalesque is not meant to be a continuous state of freedom, it is a cyclical phase of liberation that allows regular enough expression within a controlled time and arena. Hence, it is not meant to be a means of freeing children from adult tyranny, but a safe method in which kids can express themselves as jam , mess and toilet-humour loving children, whilst able to return and learn to participate in the real, adult social world.

In conclusion, I believe children and adults are generally different, which has an influence on their contrasting literatures. The lack of world experience and influence from society provide children with a lack of shame that allows them to not mind having jam all over them . Thus they can enjoy the humour of undermining the human fear of bodily fluids, and the freedom of tolerating mess. Adults are plagued by social taboos and an impulse to conform to formal structures, and are thus doomed to mind having jam all over them . Despite this though, the adult producers of children s literature do recognise their audiences gifts in comparison to their deficiencies, and thus children s stories, novels and films are rife with the mess, dirt and toilet-humour children find hilarious and liberating.

Word Count: 1,399

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAPHY Caputi, J. (2011). Green Consciousness: Earth-Based Myth and Meaning in Shrek. In T. Nieguth, A. Lacassagne, & F. Depelteau, Investigating Shrek: Power, Identity, and Ideology.

Carroll, L. (1865). Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland (Unknown ed.). Unknown: Unknown.

Freud, S. (1927). Humour.

Hall, J. (2010). Embracing the Abject Other: The Carival Imagery of Harry Potter.

Hunt, P. (1994). An Introduction to Children`s Literature.

Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. (L. S. trans by Roudiez, Ed.)

McKenzie, J. (2005). Bums, Poos and Wees: Carnivalesque Spaces in the Picture Books of Early Childhood.

Nikolajeva, M. (2000). From Mythic to Linear: Time in Children`s Literature. Lanham, MD: Scarecross Press, Inc.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE

. Style Definitions . table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal" mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0 mso-tstyle-colband-size:0 mso-style-noshow:yes mso-style-priority:99 mso-style-parent:"" mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt mso-para-margin:0in mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt mso-pagination:widow-orphan font-size:12.0pt font-family:Cambria mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin}

Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment.