Fakelore, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Children's Literature

Reviewed By Stephanie Shipman

Fakelore, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Children's Literature (http://www.msu.edu/user/singere/fakelore.html ) is an opinion article on the state of modern folktale publications.

Authority: Eliot A. Singer authors the article. There is no information on who he is or what his credentials are. There is no link to any information on the author. The web address has an .edu domain therefore; it can be assumed that it is associated with some type of educational institution. This is the only verifiable source for authority.

 Accuracy: There is also no way to verify accuracy. Mr. Singer does have a list of references at the end of the article. These sources could be checked to verify his facts and interpretations.

Objectivity: The page/article is definitely designed to sway the reader to the author’s opinion. This site basically states the author’s beliefs that multicultural folktale picture books “are careless adaptations which completely assimilate genuine sources into contemporary children's book fashions,” and “ the changes authors make, knowledgeable, scholarly comparisons between picture books and originals invariably show the "improvements" significantly distort native style, characterization, plot, theme, meaning, and belief.”

 Currency: The page has no date. In the references section, the most recent book publication date is 1996, consequently the article had to have been written in 1996 or later. There is no way to tell when it was placed on the web.

Coverage/Content: The only topic on this site is the article by Singer, which advocates the view that the popular multicultural folktale picture books and books are really “fakelore.” He states, “Many are based on spurious legends, originally written for popular audiences following a romantic formula, that were never told in traditional communities.” The article is written in seven sections – 1. Folklore or Fakelore, 2. False Sources, 3. “User Friendly” and Modernized Sources, 4. Changing Styles, 5. Changing Characters, 6. Fixing Plots, 7. Changing Themes. Singer basically says that modern authors are changing traditional folktales with no regard for the original stories. They change style, characters, and themes to fit their purpose. They “westernize” the story to make it more appealing and some even make-up stories and pass them off as traditional tales. He says this is not just the fault of authors and publishers but also reviewers and critics. They “consistently contribute to false claims by providing a stamp of legitimacy, scholarly introductions, notes, and afterwards also provide a gloss of legitimacy.” This site serves a legitimate purpose. In order to construct an informed opinion you must here both pros and cons on a subject. Mr. Singer states his position well and supports it with examples from many multicultural stories.

Design/Appearance: The site is very plain. It contains only one long page that you must scroll through. This format is fine for what the site is designed to do. Its purpose is to present the article to the world and it does that acceptably.

Reviewed By: Hope Taylor

This site is actually an electronically published paper written by Eliot A. Singer who appears by the address and structure of the paper to be a student or staff member of Michigan State University. No dates are provided for the page or any updates. Other than the author’s name as part of the paper, no signature or link to the person who created or maintains the site can be found. If the URL is adjusted to remove the fakelore element, then a page entitled: The Pied Piper's Pifflings on Literature for Children opens with an attractive illustration and a poem. At the bottom of the screen is a link to the page Critical Essays and Related Materials on abuses of Native American and other historical traditions in recent children's literature, which contains three annotated links to his writings on the topic. Two of these links are dead and the third is the page identified in this review.

No sponsor or date is provided on the website (other than the obvious connection to the university in the URL), so it is nearly impossible to determine when the site was constructed, or even when the paper was written. The only link to time of production is the dates of various items in the bibliography, the most recent of which is 1996 (which is a print item). The author makes no overt claim to expertise on the topic and no advertisements appear anywhere in the site. Since no editor is listed, the author may have created the page himself. No biographical information is provided about the author, so the reader is left somewhat at a loss as to the suitability of the material for research. The site would be most valuable used as an interesting discussion rather than as a reference, except for the usefulness of the bibliography. The essay itself is a deep exploration of the misuse of folktales in children’s books.

The page includes an abstract of the paper, a delineated quote on the topic of changing and adapting folklore in ways which are not culturally relevant to the original story (primarily in children’s books). No graphics or illustrations are included on the page. The lengthy paper is broken up into titled chapters and contains obviously biased statements on the propriety of “cleaning up” folklore for children’s books. This is couched in terms of ethics and many specific examples are provided to support the points. Each is well cited, and the extensive bibliography fills the last seven of the twenty-five pages of the article.