Mary Grant Bruce
Jun. 9th, 2012 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emma_in_dreamClare Bradford, in *Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children's Literature* (2001) points out some of the difference between the 1910 and 1992 versions of A Little Bush Maid. (The later was altered to try to remove some of the racism).
[Billy] worshipped the Linton children - Jim especially, and would obey him with the unquestioning obedience of a dog. 1910
[Billy] worshipped the Linton children - Jim especially, and would obey him unquestioningly. 1992
‘That’s good,’ said Norah approvingly and black eighteen grinned from ear to ear with pleasure at the praise of twelve year old white... 1910
‘That’s good,’ said Norah approvingly and Billy grinned from ear to ear. 1992
She writes:
‘The 1992 versions take the edge off the language of the 1910 text, but they do not materially alter its depiction of interactions between Billy and the Lintons. Billy still obeys ‘unquestioningly’; his ear to ear grin is still contraste with Norah’s twelve-year-old maturity.... Angus & Robertson’s project of ‘improving’ the book is clearly futile, since to remove colonial discourse one would need to reconstruct its narrative entirely, thereby transforming it into another text. Another option open to adults disturbed by the prospect that children may read the original versions of the Billabong books is to remove them from institutional sites such as school and municipal libraries. But to engage in systemic censorship of this kind invites resistance and infers that young readers are incapable of recognising and interrogating colonial ideologies.’ (44-6)
[Billy] worshipped the Linton children - Jim especially, and would obey him with the unquestioning obedience of a dog. 1910
[Billy] worshipped the Linton children - Jim especially, and would obey him unquestioningly. 1992
‘That’s good,’ said Norah approvingly and black eighteen grinned from ear to ear with pleasure at the praise of twelve year old white... 1910
‘That’s good,’ said Norah approvingly and Billy grinned from ear to ear. 1992
She writes:
‘The 1992 versions take the edge off the language of the 1910 text, but they do not materially alter its depiction of interactions between Billy and the Lintons. Billy still obeys ‘unquestioningly’; his ear to ear grin is still contraste with Norah’s twelve-year-old maturity.... Angus & Robertson’s project of ‘improving’ the book is clearly futile, since to remove colonial discourse one would need to reconstruct its narrative entirely, thereby transforming it into another text. Another option open to adults disturbed by the prospect that children may read the original versions of the Billabong books is to remove them from institutional sites such as school and municipal libraries. But to engage in systemic censorship of this kind invites resistance and infers that young readers are incapable of recognising and interrogating colonial ideologies.’ (44-6)
