The Australian: Children’s fiction spins tale of wise patriarchs
Natasha Giardina has done a thesis on eight children’s novels published between 1900 and 1997. It includes well -known books like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and examines how adults perceive childhood and how that perception has changed over the years.
“Despite those changes, some relationships between adult and child in fantasy fiction had changed little, even in modern stories such as Harry Potter, she said. “In particular, the figure of the white patriarch — the Merlin, Gandalf, Dumbledore figure — and the associated ideology that children should always trust the guidance of white patriarchs — has changed very little.”
Of the authors she looked at, Roald Dahl used children’s culture – games, rhymes, rituals and anti-adult mentality – “most overtly”, a factor she attributed to his success.
Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights bucked the trend. She said it destroyed the idea that parents knew best or were always benevolent. It empowered children and showed they could cope on their own.”