Mapping the Rivers: Communication and the Flow of Ideas

Abstract

Mapping the Rivers: Communication and the Flow of Ideas by Judith Weedman Children's books create worlds which are entered by each child who reads them; they are created out of the worlds 1n which their authors and Illustrators Uve. Although the general public often thinks of an artist as an Isolated Individual working within the private Inspiration of her own Ineffable muse, sociologists stress the contextual nature of art. An artist's world 1s broader than her own Individual creativity; she works within a specific cultural context. One aspect of the context surrounding the creation of a work of art, such as a book, 1s the cultural apparatus which Intervenes between the production and the reception of a work of art. Publishers, critics, journal editors, librarians, and others act as aesthetic mediators. It 1s Inevitable that these Intermediaries have some Impact on the growth, change, and flow of Ideas. This study looks at three groups of cultural Intermediaries—literary critics, book reviewers, and editors—who work with children's literature. What 1s examined 1s the communication which exists among them; the confluence, exactly, of their Ideas and values. One way of studying the growth, change, and flow of Ideas within a culture 1s to map patterns of commundatlon. (Communication takes place through formal channels—journal articles, books, presentations at conferences—and through Informal channel s—personal conversations. An understanding of the extent to which critics, reviewers, and publishers draw from and contribute to a shared pool of Ideas contributes 1n turn to our understanding of our literature and culture as a whole. The methodology used for the study was a mailed questionnaire. A nine-page questionnaire was sent to 168 editors, 19 reviewers, and 260 literary critics of children's literature. The overall response rate was 40%. Although for reasons of confidentiality detailed Information cannot be provided about these Individuals, the way 1n which the population members were defined and Identified 1s Important 1n understanding the results. To Identify editors whose primary work Involved children's literature, publishing houses Usted as juvenile publishers by Literary Market Place were used. One hundred e1ghty-s1x firms were Usted; 61 of these were Identified as major publishers of children's books. A company was considered "major" 1f they had annual lists of 20 or more titles, or, when size of 11st could not be ascertained, If (1) they designated an Individual responsible for juvenile books or (2) their total 11st exceeded 20 titles and juveniles were Usted as the first category of books published. The heads of the children's book divisions of these companies were written to, and names of the Individuals who did substantive editing of children's books were requested. These Individuals then constituted the population of editors. Reviewers were defined as Individuals who were employed by review journals; Individuals who write occasional reviews and free lance reviewers were not Included. Literary critics presented the largest problem of definition. They cannot be automatically Identified through their job titles or by their place of employment. Further, the Issue of what 1s and what 1s not a work of literary criticism presents a methodological problem—certainly 37 not all articles published about children's literature are criticism, and 1n social science research H 1s not acceptable for the researcher to decide subjectively that a given article 1s literary criticism, or that an Individual 1s a literary critic. The technique decided upon was modeled on that used by Charles Kadushln when he undertook a study of the "American Intellectual elite"—another group for whom the definition 1s not Immediately obvious. A sample of members of the Children's Literature Association was asked to Identify those Journals which they considered to be Important as publishers of criticism concerning children's literature. A core 11st of 25 Journals was thus created. Nineteen of the 25 were available for examination. Issues from 1980 through 1985 were examined, and those Individuals who published an article or had a book of criticism reviewed during those years 1n those journals then formed the population of literary critics. These 447 people, then, comprised the population of cultural Intermediaries to be surveyed. Two aspects of their communication patterns were of...