Investigating Modern Children Stories English Literature Essay
My probe was designed to look into kids ‘s modern twenty-four hours narratives, and whether there were any identifiable lingual forms within them. I chose to look into this subject, as I was interested in the unconventional manner of the genre and discourse construction of the text. It besides complemented several facets of child linguistic communication acquisition which I truly enjoyed. Because of the unusual genre and combination of modern and authoritative faery narratives into one narrative, it seemed logical to look into the discourse construction as it appeared to be wholly different from a typical kid ‘s narrative. For this ground I used the full text.
Within my probe I expected to happen that there might be more informality within the linguistic communication picks compared to traditional kids ‘s narratives, as the information represents a more modern genre of narrative stating. I besides expected that lexis would be more simplified, with simple sentence structure within the sentence construction to do the text easier to read and understand for a immature audience. Because kids might besides read the narrations with their parents, there could be grounds that the matter-of-fact purpose of the writer would be to make a narrative to be enjoyed by a multi layered audience, including parents and in peculiar younger kids.
Additionally, due to the manner of the text, I expected to happen typical characteristics included within many fairy narratives ; such as subjects of good and evil and implicit in ethical motives to learn the audience an of import lesson.
Methodology
I was chose to transport out this probe because child linguistic communication acquisition interested me and after reading through these I texts thought they would be interesting to analyze and look into the modernized genre.
As I found several short narratives contained in one book, all with a similar construction, all fast paced speedy narratives. ‘The Stinky Cheese Man ‘ contained a broad choice of modernized kids ‘s narratives with an unusual take… . And discourse, pragmatics Chose three of the narratives with most interesting characteristics, began by closely analyzing the elements of narrative, discourse construction, grammar, to analyze which were the most outstanding characteristics and to separate which were the most identifiable.
The narratives were short and so this allowed me to analyze the whole secret plan instead than uneven subdivisions of the information, and hence this enabled me to include the cardinal elements contained within the modern genre of kids ‘s narratives.
Discourse construction
The bulk of faery narratives follow a authoritative discourse construction. Initially, equilibrium would be established between the chief characters, an component of break might so be introduced, followed by a crisis and flood tide, after which the jobs will be resolved and stableness finally returns. The information I have collected nevertheless is a dramatic contrast, following a alone and more complex construction whereby the original faery narratives of ‘Cinderella ‘ , The Princess and the Pea ‘ and ‘The Frog Prince ‘ are compacted into short, fast paced narratives presenting a humourous turn. The two faery narratives Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin are combined into one narrative, making the neology ‘Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ bring forthing a comedic consequence, and so assisting to reenforce the matter-of-fact purpose to entertain the audience.
While all three narratives differ from the typical construction of faery narratives, they still appear to follow the equilibrium, break and new equilibrium sequence, get downing with ‘Once upon a clip ‘ and shutting with ‘The terminal. ‘ ‘The Other Frog Prince ‘ is peculiarly unusual, as the stoping of the narrative is distorted compared to the original secret plan. The naif Princess is deceived by the toad, whom after she kisses does non turn back into a Prince as he does in the original narrative, which leads on to the declaration and new equilibrium. However, there is no happy stoping to this narrative ; as the Princess merely ‘wiped the toad sludge off her lips ‘ , which although evokes a grotesque but humourous image, could implement a more baleful side to the narrative, in which there is the underlying secondary matter-of-fact purpose. The audience are provided with the moral that non everybody we encounter can be trusty and true, which could be more relatable to a modern twenty-four hours audience every bit now there is more consciousness of the danger and menaces to the safety of immature kids than there was antecedently.
The discourse construction of ‘Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ begins the narrative in an old patriarchal mode, with the authoritative ‘Once upon a clip ‘ gap. Quickly, the linguistic communication slips into a far more informal and modern manner, for case the adjectival ‘fabulous ‘ is used to depict the ball at the Prince ‘s palace, most often been used from the 1960 ‘s onwards, showing the alteration in linguistic communication over clip. Using the semantic field of modern lexis allows the author to convey the narrative off from the generalized audience introduced through ‘once upon a clip ‘ and into the modern twenty-four hours, using the text to this specific audience it is aimed at.
The crisis point within the narrative occurs when Cinderella ‘sat down and began to shout ‘ after she does n’t hold clip to acquire ready for the ball. As the disequilibrium is introduced, the character of Rumpelstiltskin appears to ‘help ‘ Cinderella, as a contrast to the original narrative where the ‘fairy godmother ‘ is introduced. At this point in the narrative Rumpelstiltskin ‘s statement ‘I can assist you whirl straw into gold ‘ creates a suspension in the secret plan, doing the narrative to go confused and eccentric. The absurdness of the character adds to the temper, which links in with the matter-of-fact purpose to entertain the audience. Finally, normalcy returns after the measure sisters return from the ball, though one time once more there is no happy stoping or declaration to the narrative ‘they still made her clean the house. And meaner still they changed her name to Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ . This may bind in with the secondary matter-of-fact purpose of the narrative, giving the message that non everybody will take a happy life, in add-on to learning kids to be more cognizant around unfamiliar people, as Cinderella says ‘I ‘m non supposed to speak to aliens. ‘
‘The Princess and the Bowling Ball ‘ is a modern return on the kids ‘s authoritative faery narrative ‘The Princess and the Pea ‘ ; with the matter-of-fact purpose to entertain the audience. Similarly to the original narrative, ‘the Princess and the Pea ‘ has the gap sequence ‘once upon a clip ‘ , and includes the patriarchal figures of the King and Queen, along with the Prince and Princesses. The tale mirrors the original secret plan rather closely, until the clich & A ; eacute ; statement ‘then one twenty-four hours Prince met miss of his dreams ‘ brings on flood tide of the narrative, where there is an component of misrepresentation as the Prince puts a bowling ball under the heap of mattresses instead than a pea. When the Princess responds and says ‘I felt like I was kiping on a ball every bit large as a bowling ball ‘ , equilibrium is brought to the narrative. The Prince has eventually found a Princess, and pleases the King and Queen. The usage of irony links to the matter-of-fact purpose to entertain the audience, the secret plan is more humourous and interesting as they know of the underlying naughtiness that the other characters do n’t. There might be an extra matter-of-fact purpose to learn the kids to listen to their parents. Unlike ‘The Other Frog Prince ‘ and ‘Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ there is in fact a happy stoping to the narrative instead than an unsolved job, although there is still factors of hocus-pocus and dishonesty as the household lived ‘not wholly candidly of all time after ‘ .
The audience may anticipate the authoritative discourse construction of faery narratives, as all narratives begin with ‘once upon a clip ‘ however the readers would necessitate to hold an apprehension and anterior cognition of old narratives to to the full grok why the narratives are humourous, otherwise they might happen them equivocal. However, a younger audience may non cognize the narrative of Rumpelstiltskin for illustration, and hence would non understand ‘Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ and this genre of authorship. However, the audience is multi layered ; so parents reading with the kids would acknowledge the allusion and might hold to explicate the secret plan.
This alone construction and unusual genre of authorship and storytelling might bespeak that a modern audience may no longer want a clich & A ; eacute ; ‘happily of all time after ‘ stoping any longer. Society is much more broad minded than it was around 1700 -1800 when faery narratives foremost started to go through through coevalss, and kids are now much more perceptive and cognizant of what is traveling on the universe, so it is possible that this is reflected in the linguistic communication and complexness of discourse construction.
Pragmaticss
Initially, in ‘Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ , Rumpelstiltskin appears to be a reassuring, quiet character, utilizing politeness markers such as ‘please do n’t shout ‘ . However a power battle becomes apparent between Rumpelstiltskin and Cinderella, as she does n’t desire his aid, shown through the hedge ‘does n’t truly count ‘ . Rumpelstiltskin becomes angrier throughout the narrative ; the ejaculation of ‘oh, merely think a name ‘ conveys his defeat at her. Rumpelstiltskin is portrayed through a semantic field of bizarreness and absurdness, ‘clever…strange…screaming ‘ which is contrasted with semantic field of exposure and deficiency of power for Cinderella, ‘made her clean ‘ and ‘began to shout ‘ .
Again, within the ‘Princess and the Bowling Ball ‘ the masculine figures have high quality and power over females. This shown through the sentence structure and order of ‘dad and ma ( the male monarch and Queen ) ‘ , these are both powerful figures within the narrative, yet between them there is an order of penchant within gender of their names, connoting that the King is more of import than the Queen. The Princess is described as being ‘a nice miss ‘ , transporting intensions of being sweet and guiltless, running with the gender stereotype looking throughout this genre of authorship. The term of endearment ‘how did you kip dear? ‘ towards the Princess could be seen as condescending, and the pragmatics suggest that she is weak and demands looking after.
Furthermore, the correspondence in ‘The other frog prince ‘ incorporating the adjectives ‘sad ‘ and ‘pathetic ‘ , farther portray the male character as being weak, instead than the female. At this point the functions are reversed so that Princess has power over the toad, nevertheless as narrative develops its evident that she is tricked and the male figure is more powerful. Temples theory that misss in their inactive function tendency to be care takers can be applied here, as the Princess submits to the toads wants and takes commiseration on him ‘she felt sorry for the toad ‘ .
Although there are many illustrations of gender pigeonholing within these kids ‘s narratives, there are besides some contrasts. Some of the female figures do demo independency, which is apparent within the turn on the original faery narratives. For case, Cinderella closes the door on the ‘strange ‘ Rumpelstiltskin instead than allowing him in, which opposes female stereotype of failing and uncertainness. This could bespeak that bit by bit kids ‘s literature is germinating to do female characters stronger and more independent, and here there might be a matter-of-fact purpose to acquire the audience to re-examine their gender beliefs, demoing how society has changed with a more unrestrictive position of gender functions.
Grammar
Within the three faery narratives, the grammar is used to complement the modern manner and genre of the fairy narrative, whilst still transporting similar grammatical characteristics from original narratives. The usage of the pre-modifier ‘beautiful ‘ is used to depict the Princesss and female characters within all three faery narratives, and a similar choice of adjectives appear to be used non merely in my ain informations, but are a standard characteristic of most fairy narratives, both modern twenty-four hours and old. For illustration ‘wicked ‘ ‘sad ‘ and ‘ugly ‘ are common descriptions and subjects that are present in most fairy narratives, and this is combined into the modern retelling of the narratives. There appears to be the representation of the traditional political orientation of good and immorality, which could associate to the pragmatics of the narrative, to supply the audience with ethical motives and of import lessons, which are still really much relevant today, if non more so.
The grammar helps to reenforce the informal and colloquial registry of the texts, for illustration the usage of parenthesis ‘ ( the King and Queen ) ‘ gives extra information and acts as an reconsideration from the auctorial voice. Similarly, elans are used to project the informal manner of linguistic communication and discourse relationship, for illustration ‘wicked and ugly- they besides ‘ . The usage of the dash besides demonstrates the informalisation of society and the impact that engineering has had on linguistic communication. This might be due to the fact that since the original faery narratives were written, there has been a engineering roar and this influence has shown itself within these kids ‘s narratives. Furthermore, within the grammar there are legion illustrations of sentences get downing with the conjunctions ‘and ‘ and ‘but ‘ , for case ‘And everyone lived merrily ‘ . This may propose that the linguistic communication and grammatical construction of faery narratives has become less formal as they have passed through many coevalss over a long period of clip.
The usage of emphatic sentences, for illustration, the repeat of ‘RUMPELSTILTSKIN! Rumpelstiltskin! Rumpelstiltskin! ‘ enables the characters to go more alive, perchance making more look when reading the narrative aloud, hence doing it more exciting and prosecuting. The usage of capitalization besides makes Rumpelstiltskin ‘s character seem more baleful, as he is one of the scoundrels in ‘Cinderellarumpelstiltskin ‘ .
Similarly, declaratory sentences appear often across the information, in peculiar ‘The Princess and the Bowling Ball ‘ where the indicative moods are used within a parallel construction to convey the chief secret plan of the narrative to an disconnected stoping, ‘The King and Queen were satisfied. The Prince and Princess were married. ‘ This may associate in with the primary matter-of-fact purpose to entertain the audience with a short, fast paced narrative. As there may non be adequate clip within a busy modern twenty-four hours agenda to read a whole faery narrative, peculiarly for a parent reading to a kid, a shorter narrative might be more good and clip salvaging. Additionally, the usage of inactive tense to state the Prince and Princess were married ‘ , gives the feeling that this is something that happened to them or were forced into, to ‘satisfy ‘ the King and Queen, who throughout the narrative look to be rather controlling, ‘no Princess would be good plenty for their male child ‘ . This about portrays them as scoundrels, as the ‘Prince had a really difficult clip ‘ . This may associate with the matter-of-fact purpose of learning the audience a moral, perchance that some people are ne’er content or satisfied with what they already have.
Within ‘The Princess and the Bowling Ball ‘ the usage of initial rhyme creates a rhythmic form to the text ‘as large as a bowling ball ‘ , which creates more accent on the words and gives a more graphic ocular image, doing the narrative more stimulating for the audience, and once more is more exciting if the narrative is being read by a parent. The usage of average verbs appear to be common throughout all three pieces of informations, for illustration ‘might ‘ , ‘should ‘ and ‘would ‘ . This may be a technique employed to reenforce the informal and gabby mode of the auctorial voice, which may be more relatable to the audience as it sounds more cheerful and amiable. In add-on, a immature audience might happen the text to complex to read whilst unaided ; this may be the ground for the big, humourous images included within the discourse construction in order to do the narratives more visually exciting.
Decision
Through my probe I have developed a greater apprehension of the cardinal characteristics included within the genre of modernized kids ‘s narratives. After close analysis I Identified a figure of repeating characteristics, for case I found that a comparatively simple sentence structure was used within the construction of the sentences, doing it easier for a immature audience to read entirely. For those who may hold found these texts excessively complex to read unaided ; the big humourous images might be included within the discourse construction to do the narratives more visually exciting and entertaining.
In add-on, there was a clear sequence in the discourse construction of the narratives, and as predicted I found that all of the narratives had an implicit in message, and recognized how influential to immature kids these narratives could really be ; in footings of their behavior, attitudes and positions towards others and how they are socially conditioned, as narratives with these characteristics are read by the bulk of kids on a frequent footing.
However, as the narratives came from the same book, they had a really similar genre and discourse construction, and although this was good for garnering a big sum of qualitative informations for analysis, it may besides hold been helpful to analyze another genre of kids ‘s narrative in order to do clearer comparings and happen more accurate identifiable lingual forms across a wider scope of informations.
