Diverse Questions around Diversity

Illustration by Rhea de Souza

The squawking – whirring of my 2007 modem indicated I was connected to the World Wide Web. Those days still fresh in my memory despite the cataclysmic advancement of technology playing out vividly as I try and recall my first sighting of Ismat’s Eid (Fawzia Gilani Williams; Proiti Roy -Illustrator)– a picture book that showed up on a favourite bookmarked site, www.tulikabooks.in.

I immediately put it on my task list to order, drawn to the book for two reasons. First, I have been drawn to the marginal, enough to explore the cultural history of our homeland to recognise that we had Islamic influences for years before the Portuguese. Enough to want to identify with that cultural past and give my sons Arabic names. Sufficient to warrant active looking for picture books for our home collection that represented as much as the world could hold. We actively bought books closely linked to us and potentially linked to us, so Ismat’s Eid was a must-have. The other peculiarity that drew me personally to the cover image was the use of the dashed black lines to indicate stitching. I love anything that hints at stitching and so the book became a part of our lives.

The attraction to Ismat’s Eid has remained till today, growing more complex but no less fascinating and appealing over the years. Since moving with my collection from personal to professional, I have read, re-read, read aloud, discussed and shared Ismat’s Eid on many occasions. Recently, at a session I observed Ismat’s Eid in action; it was at the center of a discussion around quality texts. The groups of adults in the room were discussing criteria that enabled a book to be considered of a high quality. Large bodies of work in this area, particularly around children’s literature, caution us to be aware of the subjectivity that abounds in this discourse as well as the complexity around ideas of representation – authenticity – multiculturalism – cultural diversity.

When examining quality, we need to spend some time thinking about what is relevant and what is not. Is literary quality a stand-alone criterion or is cultural authenticity also critical? Cultural authenticity is complex but Rudine Simms Bishop (2003) explains it thus, “in some sense it has to do with the success with which a writer is able to reflect the cultural perspectives of the people about whom he or she is writing and make readers from inside the group believe that the writer knows ‘what is going on’.” In using Ismat’s Eid with multiple groups, including ‘insider’ groups, the humour in the story, the warmth of the family, the character that is Ismat has remained after the story has been read and discussed. I pause to consider if in reading the text as an ‘outsider’, I have failed to elicit responses from the ‘insiders’ that make for critical reading or are some stories more than the seeking for authentic representation?

I recall an argument by M Aronson (2003) in A Mess of Stories where he discusses the cultural crossing that occurs continuously in music and argues that multiculturalism is the “mess of stories” that we all receive and write. He believes in demanding high standards of artistry rather than trying to assess the author’s cultural qualifications alone. However many other educators hold that a book must excel at both its literary value and its cultural authenticity. There appears to be a consensus that there is no dichotomy between a good and an authentic story. The majority of authors and educators argue that the debate is not whether cultural authenticity should be a criterion for evaluating a book, but what kind of criteria and understandings should be used, particularly when a cultural outsider is looking into a book. This question is also pertinent about the creators of books as cultural insiders. But for now, let us look into the book.

I was keenly listening into the conversation when Ismat’s Eid was being discussed and I was struck by the critical comments the text elicited. It appeared in the moment of evaluation to have shed all its promise of a warm, humorous tale of a family during festival time. The cultural representation was questioned as stereotypical of one kind of Muslim representation in dress and appearance. The status of women in the household was judged as patriarchal and regressive and the logic of the story was questioned in great depth because the act of shortening trousers (which is what the plot of the story revolves around) could not have been missed by every subsequent actor in the story. The illustrations furthermore did not fill in the gaps in the narrative’s sketchy logic and so the book was dismissed as one of weak quality in a room full of thoughtful educators.

Long after the discussion passed, the conversations around this text compelled me to reflect on the criteria for good books and to question cultural representations as a subset of that criteria but in this case a critical one. The strongest argument that emerged in the live talk was about the representation of Ismat as a bearded, kurta and skullcap-wearing man. The question was around why the Muslim is always represented in this manner and dress. Is that the only way a Muslim character should be represented? As I think about this question, I am wondering that in representing Muslim-ness in this way, whom does the text include and who does it exclude? Is it adding to stereotyping around dress and personhood? Who was this text intended for? Mo and Shen (2003) who argue cultural authenticity in Stories Matters complicate authenticity by discussing issues involved in value conflicts between the culture from which a story is taken and the culture for which the book is intended, and they point to the need to consider both cultures in determining authenticity. Now if we add that each reading is a unique transaction that results in different interpretations (Rosenblatt) and the range of experiences that every reader brings to the text, the complexity of responses to Ismat’s Eid is not surprising.

What we appeared to be seeking is a diversity of representations of the diverse. This led me to think of other texts that we have in our collection with characters like Ismat. The list was limited, indicating that this category itself is a marginalised category and hence every book that makes the collection has a value beyond its literary quality. But does this mean that any representation of the under-represented is acceptable? Of course not, but in our seeking of values either cultural or literary, what do we retain and what do we discard? As Marc Aronsen (2003) writes, “we must be rigorously attuned to the complexity of cultures, willing to recognise the limitations of our own points of view.”

Since the text in consideration was in the form of a Picture Book the responsibility of the illustrations bears equally as those of the text. Stripped of the illustration the only reference to a cultural marker for Ismat is the mention of Eid – the festival of a religious group and the movements around the festival which could have been visualised in the minds of the reader as imagined. Would stripping the book of its images, have relieved the book of the burden it now carried? I know the reader in me would have been stripped off the artistic value of the illustrations that drew me to the text. But then, the discussion group also had a problem with this plot itself. The suspension of belief or the entry into disbelief when in a story space was forgotten in the pursuit for the ‘authentic’ but here lies the gem of a book like Ismat’s Eid that allows us to talk together.

It is in the inter-cultural and also intra-cultural space of the text that conversations can begin and continue. I think these are critical for children and in fact make the text memorable beyond the story for what the text has to offer. Mingshui Cai (1998) pointed out that since the goal is to work for equity and social justice, children need to be able to tackle issues of cultural difference, equity, and assumptions about race, class, and gender as they read literature. This means more responsive teaching/ talking about texts, heightened responsibility around creation of texts for a move towards quality.

Given that there will never be and should never be a definite criteria to evaluate books, we want to embark on a deeper study of Picture Books like Ismat’s Eid that represent a culture. We are not even sure this is possible but invite you to partner with us on this study. If you know of picture books we must consider, those that raise questions to your mind or want to be a part of the team, please write to us. Just like the waiting for a book to come in the mail and the surprises it affords, I await you.

References:

• Cai, M. (1998). Multiple definitions of multicultural literature: Is the debate really just “ivory tower” bickering? The New Advocate, 11, 311-324.

• Gillani-Williams, Fauzia ( 2007) Ismat’s Eid, Tulika Publishers, Chennai.

• Short, K., & Fox, D. (2003). The complexity of cultural authenticity in children’s literature: Why the debates really matter. In D. L. Fox & K. G. Short (Eds.), Stories matter: The complexity of cultural authenticity in children’s literature.