Deconstructing Delphinium: Violence and Flowers in Rousseau’s Émile and Henke’s Chrysanthemum

Abstract

This article is an attempt to contribute to the conversation about “go[ing] beyond all kinds of binary thinking” (Lenz Taguchi, Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: introducing an intra-active pedagogy, 2010, p. 50), especially the binary which positions “adults” and “children” as being powerful and powerless, respectively, in educational settings. It is also a personal reflection on “naming.” At the center of the reflection are two literary works, the picture book by Henkes, Chrysanthemum (1991), and the novel by Rousseau, Emile, ou l’education (1762a). The central metaphor of Emile—that of the developing child as organically unfolding, like a flower—is deconstructed by the plot involving two flower-named characters in Chrysanthemum. These characters are the protagonist, Chrysanthemum, and her music teacher, Delphinium Twinkle. Two acts of “naming” are considered: the literal act of naming a newborn baby and the abstract concept of “naming” [or labeling] a particular time in the life of a human being: “Childhood” (Cannella, Deconstructing early childhood education: social justice and revolution, 1997).