The aesthetics of the macabre in contemporary children’s fiction: A debate over the pedagogical function of horror. Mary Drosopulos International congress Reflections on childhood. Faculty of Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki 2014 Abstract The macabre and the supernatural are extremely popular in children’s fiction these days. Terrifying creatures, evil vampires and ghosts are a common motif, while death and violence constitute the central themes in some of the best-selling children’s books worldwide. This unprcedented obsession with horror has expanded to all areas involved in children’s entertainment, from the toy and video games industry to the Hollywood film studios. For some analysts, the rich seam of horror running through contemporary children's fiction is a continuation of the fairy-tale tradition, updated to fit the standards of modern societies. In this context, macabre stories serve as a metaphor to express universal fears and desires which are hidden in the darker and deeper parts of the human soul. For others, the macabre fantasy novel is a revolutionary genre, that liberates children’s literature from didacticism and compensates for all the stories which had been censored for centuries by adults. Institutions connected with the clergy and formal education see a potential threat in this type of fiction, warning about its negative effects on the psychology of the child-reader. Indeed, some of the most popular, award winning fantasy novels are so explicit and shocking that defy many of the “rules” that traditionally apply to books addressing children. These developments make us wonder about the function of children’s literature in the contemporary world. The hereby paper selectively presents some of the most successful fantasy books for children. By drawing a historical connection between the traditional fairy tale and the fantasy novel, we provide a platform for thought on the evolution of children’s literature and the actual needs of the contemporary child-reader. The aesthetics of the macabre in contemporary children’s fiction: A debate over the pedagogical function of horror. Introduction “Eleanor Kerchner is real. That’s the doll-girl’s name. She told me about herself. Her father was some kind of worker for a china manufacturer, designing and decorating pottery, and when Eleanor died, her dad went totally crazy. He couldn’t bear to put her in the ground, so he took her body back to the kilns at his job, chopped her up and created her. He ground up her burnt bones and used them to make a batch of bone china, then poured it into a mold cast from one of Eleanor’s favourite dolls. So her grave stayed empty.” (Doll Bones, Holly Black, 2013: 64) This is an extract from Holly Black’s multiple award winning novel Doll Bones, where a young girl, Poppy, discovers that her toy is in fact made of the bones and ashes of a dead girl, who asks to be buried for her soul to rest in peace. The spirit of the girl haunts Poppy and her friends, obliging them to launch a journey to locate her grave in a town far away from home. The book bears clear references to the Juniper Tree story of the Brothers Grimm and follows many of the patterns of the oral fairy tale tradition, before it was censored and sanitized by adults. The motif of living dead and graveyards is vividly illustrated in The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, published in 2008. The story begins with a macabre scene--a family is stabbed to death by "a man named Jack”. The only person who survives the attack is the baby of the family, who escapes by toddling to a nearby graveyard and offered shelter by the spirits of the dead, who name him Nobody ("Bod"), and allow him to live in their tomb: "The faces were dead, as if someone had constructed dolls from parts of the corpses of humans and of animals". In Darren Shan’s Lord Loss -the first novel in the fictional Demonata series, which sold millions, published in 2005- "Grubbs" Grady is the younger child of chess-obsessed parents. One night, he finds the mutilated bodies of his family in the basement: " …(his father) hanging upside down from the webby ceiling in the centre of the room. No head. Blood drips to the floor from the gaping red O of the neck". Grubbs discovers that this despicable crime is the act of a human-like demon, Lord Loss. People believe that he is hallucinating from the psychological trauma, therefore he is placed in a mental institute, but he refuses to accept treatment until he is visited by his father's younger brother, who also believes that demons exist and offers to help him. Children’s fascination with the macabre Contemporary young readers have welcomed and embraced the macabre fantasy novel, which is nowadays ardently promoted by the international book industry. Books such the R L Stine's original Goosebumps series in the United States and J K Rowling's Harry Potter series in Britain were only the beginning in the fantasy genre. They sold million of copies worldwide and inspired a new generation of writers for children. The books that continue being published ever since are even darker and more frightening, revealing that there is a young audience thirsty for terror and fantasy. In the hereby study, macabre stories are understood as works of literature which focus on the subject of death in a frightening, strange or unpleasant way; dweling on the gruesome and sometimes involving scenes of violence. We can easily understand why children love fantasy and why macabre books are a big success. Young readers are fascinated by exotic and extraordinary elements in fiction (indic. Hatim and Mason 1990, Shavit 1986: 380-1, Klingberg 1986:9-10). I quote the words of Roald Dahl, whose works have been a turning point for modern fantasy literature: “children love to be spooked. They like a touch of the macabre, as long as it is funny too.” (Dahl in Bilson 2010) İt is also true that children read mainly for fun and certainly not to find their identity (Singer 1994 in Tatar 1998:68). When they are not pressured by teachers or parents, they read because they love stories and they cherish books which are intriguing and amusing (Tatar 1998:69). The big question that emerges, though, is whether a young reader is mature enough to convey the right messages from a text and also distinguish between fiction and reality. According to Maria Nikolajeva, younger readers often find it difficult to draw the line between real life and fantasy; in this sense, it is possible for them to treat literary characters as if they were living people and to judge their behaviours and morals accordingly (Nikolajeva 1996:189). In this framework, if the aim of these books is to prepare children to cope with pain and loss, then it is debatable whether this goal can be achieved by explicit depictions of dead bodies, killings and other gruesome scenes. Methodological approaches in children’s literature It is an indisputable fact that children’s literature is entirely controlled by adults and moulded according to the values of their society. It is adult authority that defines which texts are suitable for children and which are not (O’Sullivan 2005:14, Nikolajeva 1996:62). Adult actors decide on what children should read, driven firstly by their own perceptions of what young readers can understand, appreciate or enjoy (Shavit 1981:172, Lathey 2006:6) and secondly, by considering the ideals and morals that the source-society expects children to have (O’Sullivan 2005:14). Grown-ups produce, promote and finally even purchase the book. One of the main functions of children’s literature is to socialize young readers according to the dominant cultural, educational and ethical standards of the society they are living in, in order to prepare them for their future life as adults (indic. Stephens 1992:8, O’Sullivan 2005: 13). Consequently, children’s literature is often employed as a vehicle to familiarize children also with the less pleasant but inevitable aspects of human nature, such as loss, pain and suffering (Πέτκου 2008). Many scholars will agree that the universal issue of death has been one of the most challenging and controversial subjects in children’s literature. For years, it was considered a taboo and a subject that had to be silenced or beautified in texts for children (Gavriilidis 2008:167, Πατέρα και Τσιλιμένη 2008). From the 1970s and on, in the echo of the social realism movement in literature, plenty of books were written aiming at helping young readers accept and overcome the fear of loss (O’Sullivan 2010: 81-84); some of them addressing death in a more sensitive and protective way, avoiding even the word itself and others being more realistic (Τσιλιμένη και Πανάου 2011). In our modern and globalized world, where children become smarter and wiser at a younger age due to the vast amount of information that they are constantly being exposed to, children’s literature cannot help but follow developments. Contemporary writers for young readers speak today’s language; they are more daring and versatile than their predecessors. The thematology of children’s fiction has expanded and issues which were considered “inappropriate” for young people are now being addressed in revolutionary ways. In this context, the modern fantasy novel has blossomed and evolved. After all, fantasy literature is “a literature of liberation and subversion” (Mathews 2002: xii). The theme of death is a motif which has been revisited by modern writers, not with the cautious and didactic mood of the past, but with a strong dose of horror in it. In contemporary fantasy novels for children, young heroes play with spooky toys, made of dead children’s bones and visit cemeteries in the middle of the night, where they dig graves or perform magical rituals. They speak to the dead, they are raised with ghosts and even fall in love with vampires. The realm of magic is intermingled with the real world and supernatural creatures co-exist with normal people, even in full daylight. The boundaries between these two universes are no longer visible, adding excitement and intrigue to the plot. From the oral fairy tale tradition to the contemporary fantasy novel: A history of horror in children’s literature Horror has always been an integral part of children’s fiction (Gaiman in Bilson 2010). The supernatural element constituted an essential ingredient in the oral fairy tale tradition and especially the folk narrative, where a story had to be appealing enough to be remembered and repeated by storytellers over centuries and across national boundaries (Jones 2002: 4, 8). Fairy tales employ fantasy, symbolism and exaggeration to express people’s deeper thoughts and fears connected with the world and also to answer moral dilemmas (ibid. 2002: 11). Lake says: "I've always believed that [macabre stories] allow children to explore fear in a sort of safe, confined way. Because what children are actually afraid of is their parents dying” (Lake in Bilson 2010). Just as adult horror stories provide space for readers to cope with notions of death and decay which in their pure form are too frustrating, cruel or disgusting to contemplate, so the ghosts and demons in children’s fiction address issues that distress and shock even adults” (Martin 2009). The folk tale tradition inspired the works of Perrault, Andersen and the brothers Grimm, whose stories are stil beeing read and cherished by millions of children all around the world, usually in their adapted form (Gavriilidis 2011: 7-8). The original stories have been censored and sanitized several times, as they contain scenes which have been considered too explicit for children (Zipes 1987:xxix). They have also been accused of promoting pegagogically “wrong” messages (Γαβριηλίδου 2011:8). To provide some examples, in the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, the stepsisters sliced off their heels and toes in their efforts to make the slipper fit. In the Grimm's version of Snow White, the huntsman was dispatched by the wicked queen not to bring back Snow White's heart, but to get her lungs and liver. When the huntsman tricked the queen by substituting the innards of a boar, "the wicked woman ate them up." (Rense 1992). Modern fantasy fiction is an extension of fairy tales, adopted to the contemporary World (indic. Nikolajeva 2003, Stoodt 1996: 189, Salminen 2009:13). We can see the links between the obsession with the macabre and the moral messages to be communicated, as well as similarities in the narrative patterns. For instance, fairy tales have a tradition in teaching children by using explicit warnings and lessons, which are often brutal and cruel (Zipes 1987:xxix). Battleheim believes in the therapeutic effect of brutal representations in children’s books. In the introduction to The Uses of Enchantment, his classic study of fairy tales, he analyzes how constructive fairy tales can be for the following reasons: Firstly, they prepare young people for real life, which is often harsh and cruel (Battleheim 1976:11). Secondly, they allow the discharge of darker emotions, which are hiding in the human psyche, leading thus to a purifying feeling of catharsis (1976:161-162). Thirdly, they make young readers more independent, instructing them to judge for themselves and understand right and wrong (1976:11). Another characteristic is the motif of the “journey” or the “quest” (Nikolajeva 2003). In both fairy tales and fantasy novels, young heroes are given a mission, which they have to accomplish without the help of adults (because adults usually do not understand or do not take them seriously). Bettelheim notes that many fairy stories begin with the death of a mother or father (Bettelheim in Tatar 1998:70). “It's a maxim of children's writing that you get rid of the parents as soon as you can," says Lake, "whether by sending your characters to boarding school, or through a door into another world… so that your child characters have to fend for themselves." (Lake in Bilson 2010). In this journey, which is in fact a metaphor for the transition to maturity and adulthood, young heroes have to cope with all possible adversities, that are symbolically personified by vicious monsters and terrifying creatures. Away from their parents’ supervision, they explore mystery and horror, forced to make decisions on their own judgment. Both fairy tales and fantasy novels usually follow a linear narrative technique (Nikolajeva 1996), where the young heroes depart from home to explore the cruel world and come back to their point of departure, braver and wiser (Egoff 1988 in Martin 2009). In the contemporary fantasy novel we can see a strong influence by social realism, a genre which became very popular from the late Seventies to the early Nineties (Bilson 2010). Developments in science, technology and the political scene had a great impact on societies and especially on human relationships. Writers for young children, grasping the rhythm of their times, began to explore challenging thematics which used to be considered taboo. They felt more free than their predecessors to speak frankly and openly about issues such as domestic violence, sexuality, loss or divorce (Mc Elmeel 1996:51). Modern times brought in new challenges, which were not traditionally the object of children’s literature: teenage pregnancy, abortion, self-mutilation, drug-abuse and suicide (ibid. 1996:53). These were thematics which were not connected with childhood in the previous decades, but do concern today’s children, who live in world different than the one that we or our parents lived in. It is a world which is much more demanding and much harsher; this reality has led to today’s children being very informed and realistic. This probably explains the success of the contemporary fantasy novel. Fantasy writers employ allegory and metaphors to tackle the fears, worries and desires that have emerged from the new standards of our modern societies. It is not a coincidence that the central personas in most fantasy novels are children who live in disfunctional families and desperately seek a change. Fantasy never stopped being a source of hope for young people and a means of escape in times of frustration: “…Zack wanted them (the ghosts) to be real. Wanted that desperately. If they were real, then maybe the world was big enough to have magic in it. And if there was magic- even bad magic, and Zack knew it was more likely that there was bad magic than any good kind- then maybe not everyone had to have a story like his father’s, a story like all the adults he knew told, one about giving up and growing bitter.” (Doll Bones, Holly Black 2013:117) It is worth mentioning that in fantasy texts, the effect of terror is also accentuated by illustration, which promotes and adds to the story. In contemporary fantasy novels (including picture books for little children), the content of the book is usually predictable from the front cover. There are book covers depicting terrifying monsters, vampires and ghosts, while others focus on the central heroes, depicting children in a state of fear and panic. What is also interesting is that, in most cases, the pictures focus mainly -if not exclusivelyon the frightening or gruesome instances of each chapter. Illustration in the fantasy genre certainly adds to the feeling of mystery and terror. The pedagogical value of macabre children’s fiction The debate over the appropriateness of certain texts for children goes back to the fairy tale controversy. As we mentioned before, the most famous children’s classics had been sanitized according to the rules of pedagogical “correctness”. During the last decades, we have become witnesses of an international movement to liberate arts and letters, which stems from the rapid sociopolitical developments, especially from the 1960’s and on. It sometimes seems like the international book industry is trying to compensate for all the centuries of suppression (Bilson 2010). This tendency, though, has sometimes carried us to the other extreme, giving us the impression that certain works have been created for the sake of provocation, only. The phenomenon of “compensation” -that we mentioned above- is also evident in cinematography. In the last years, film studios have invested millions in re- filming classical children’s fairy tales, adding some of the “dark” aspects of the original stories. “Snow White and the Huntsman” (2012), “Maleficent” (2014), “La belle et la bête” (2014) are only some of the most recent examples. These films are adapted to the standards of our contemporary societies and use allegory to answer moral dilemmas related to the present. In a similar fashion, contemporary writers for children seem to be going back to the classics, so as to draw not only inspiration, but also to find answers to universal questions connected with the human psyche. No matter how much technology evolves, the basic human values remain ecumenical and this is why classic pieces of literature, philosophy and art are always relevant and timeless. This spiritual quest is also connected with religion. Fantasy has a strong religious character and alludes to ancient legends and rituals (Łaszkiewicz 2013). We indicatively mention the “Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S.Lewis; a work rich in christian allegories (Łaszkiewicz 2013) or “the Lord of the Rings” by Tolkien and “Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling, which allude to pagan and mystic practices (Abanes 2002: 132-140, 150-164). Fantasy books have been accused of “proselytizing” or indirectly promoting spiritual credos to their young audience and for this reason, have been criticized by many religious institutions. For instance, in the official website of the Orthodox church of Greece, one can find an extended article warning parents of contemporary “corrupted” fantasy books of anti-christian content, which can harm the psychosynthesis of the child (Τσούρος 2014). Similarly, there are plenty of blogs and sites on the internet, where parents and educators express their concerns. The fact that contemporary fantasy works keep getting darker and darker, with more emphasis on the gruesome and appaling aspects of the human nature may also be connected with commercial reasons and with making the book more attractive for young readers. This fact, however, is not necessarily negative. Nowadays, literature has to compete with dozens of other means of entertainment, which are much more colorful and appealing to children. Let us not forget that modern writers address a generation which has been brought up by Playstation and Facebook. For all the negative implications that fantasy fiction has been blamed for, there is also a very bright side: it has brought the habit of reading back into fashion. Conclusive remarks Children’s fascination with the macabre is a universal phenomenon, which goes back in time. The evolution of the fantasy novel was expected, firstly, as an outcome of the fact that today’s children are much more demanding as an audience and secondly, as an answer to the years of repression and didacticism in children’s fiction. Scholars agree that children’s literature functions as a tool to prepare young readers for their future life and the challenges that they will have to address as adults. Therefore, it is necessary and meaningful to make children acquainted with the tragic aspects of life. Except for appealing to the young reader’s imagination, which is more connected with the child’s need for amusement and adventure, the fantasy genre also contributes to familiarizing its audience with the unpleasant aspects of the human nature. On the other hand, it is disputable whether macabre fiction helps indeed in empowering young people. There is very little research on the psychological implications that violence and horror can have on the idiosyncrasy of the child-reader. We refered to Bettelheim above and his theory about the therapeutic effect of brutal representations in children’s literature, however, as Tatar stresses, in his study there is no clinical and documented evidence to support a human need for reading about violence (Tatar 1998:70). We can confidently say that contemporary children’s literature has evolved in fascinating ways, offering rich ground for research and reflection. Today’s children are different, as a result, children’s fiction seems to be grasping and exploring their actual needs. There are plenty of new tendencies and perspectives in the field to be studied, which can contribute to our understanding the profile of the new generation of children-readers. References Abanes, R. (2002). Fantasy and Your Family. Exploring The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Modern Magic. Camp Hill: Christian Publications. Bettelheim, B. (1976, 2010). The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Vintage Books. 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