INDIANS AND NATURE IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Abstract

Nowadays there are many cultural productions dedicated to teach cultural and ethnic differences,motivated largely by discourses in favor of diversity. In this article we discuss some representations ofIndian and nature constructed in 23 books of contemporary children's literature. When examining suchnarratives we considered, in particular, the effects of the close linkage established between Indian andnature that collaborate to define who they are and how they live. It was noted that, in the narrativesconsidered in this study, nature is represented as a resource to be used, manipulated, and controlled byhuman beings and, in this case, the Indians would be those who know, dominate and exploit theirsurroundings. Nature is also represented as something that has a priceless value and, thus, the Indianswould be the guardians of this treasure and of the ancestral knowledge related to it. In the books analyzedthere is a tendency to represent nature in an anthropomorphic way and also certain appeal to show aharmonious way of life attached to Indian people. In this sense, we explore, for instance, images ofIndians as beings who never tire of contemplate the splendor of nature. We observed, therefore, that theliterature that has been offered to the children of the 21st century also has an important pedagogicalcontent and, through many narratives, these books teach about nature and about the subjects that inhabitit.