The Constraints of Literary Paradigms

Abstract

Ida (2011), written by Jorn Hurum and Torstein Helleve and illustrated by Esther van Hulsen, is a non-fiction picturebook for children with an ambitious objective. It presents a fossil, the findings from the study of this fossil, and the dispute over the validity of the results. The composition of the text is threefold: the book opens with an illustrative story about the life and death of the primate that ends up becoming the fossil in question, subsequently introduces a lexicographical section ensuring the credibility of the scientific results of the primate’s research group, and finally provides instructions for appropriate activities that offer the child reader ownership of the presented knowledge. This article discusses the ambiguity within the book. The discussion has a primary focus on the constraints within the illustrative story that is jointly ruled by scientific aims and the traditions of children’s literature. The purpose of the protagonist is to die, which is rather rare in a children’s book. Nonetheless, the protagonist’s life and death takes place in the jungle environment which, according to Marilyn Strasser Olson “apparently reduces the tension” (Olson 2013: 55). The intertextual use of Christian mythology adds a solid cultural background to the story and the artwork calls to mind Henri Rousseau’s jungle cosmology. It will nonetheless be argued that the literary traditions embedded in the book ultimately blur the validity of the scientific message. Keywords: Christian mythology; the jungle; non-fiction picturebooks; reading pact (Published: 23 January 2015) Citation : Nordic Journal of ChildLit Aesthetics, Vol. 6, 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/blft.v6.26973