"Unlike some children's books that are written specifically to teach, A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories are valuable to learners not because of their pristine grammar but because they encourage imagination and thus further cognitive development."
Above is the thesis I had decided on. But in order to find more clarity I took to Goodreads to see what others were saying about Winnie the Pooh.
Here are some quotes from the comment section of the book's page that I liked and some I didn't like.
"Introduces children to the world on their level whilst introducing adults to the wonders of being a child."
"I thought them beautifully multilayered, full of observations on the nature of humanity and friendship, as well as being entertaining little tales in their own right."
"how wonderfully absurd all of the language is - with just the right amount of nonsense and naivety without being patronising."
"This unimaginative (consider the names of the main characters for example) vile "clever" nonsense is nauseatingly self-indulgent for the adult reader."
"I have always found nonsense literature a bit queesy on the old gut."
Despite it's 'less than nice' thing to say about a favorite childhood story of mine, the last comment really caught my attention. I had never heard of 'nonsense literature' before, so I decided to take a deeper look.
Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that uses sensical and nonsensical elements to defy language conventions or logical reasoning.
(So says Wikipedia)
Maybe what I'm trying to argue is that the subgenre of fiction known as nonsense literature is a valuable learning tool because it fosters imagination and I want to use Winnie the Pooh as my example. But at the same time I can reference other works of nonsense fiction like, things as old as nursery rhymes (Hey diddle, diddle) or newer works like, Dr. Seuss or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
By figuring out the genre of the literature I'm looking at, I've learned a lot about how to analyze it. Things that I chalked up to being grammatically incorrect before, I know realize are nonsensical effects like faulty cause and effect, portmanteau, neologism, reversals and inversions, imprecision, simultaneity, picture/text incongruity, arbitrariness, infinite repetition, negativity or mirroring, and misappropriation.
Not sure what some of those mean but you better believe I'm going to figure it out. So my possible revised thesis may be something along the lines of:
Although when taken at face value, nonsense literature is purely for entertainment purposes, much nonsense literature like A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories are actually valuable to learners because they encourage imagination and thus further cognitive development.
Well, what do you think? Do you like the revised thesis better or worse?
I liked that you broadened and defined your thesis (by talking more generally of nonsensical literature) because it will help you focus on the bigger issue that you are arguing of literature like Winnie the Pooh helping to further cognitive development since you will have more sources to pull from (this I think will strengthen your claim.) I would keep in mind to do close analysis of the text, though. So even though you have more texts to work with, make sure you are looking at specific literary elements in each.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sined. I appreciate the feedback and the reminder. I think my next step is to read and annotate to see what I can come up with. Yay.
DeleteGood job. I liked the use of quotes and that you are looking closely at the literature. And I was interested in your analysis of Winnie the Pooh, it made me want to read your paper.
ReplyDelete