A Journey to Ancient Sumer: The Reconstruction of the Past in Jennifer J. Garrity’s Historical Children’s Novel Secret of the Scribe
Journal Title: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Dergisi - Year 2018, Vol 58, Issue 1
Abstract
This paper argues that Jennifer J. Garrity’s historical children’s novel Secret of the Scribe (2008) with its fictional stereotyping of Ancient Sumer and its polytheistic religion undercuts the possibility of the novel to critically engage its child readers with Sumerian history and culture. By selecting a young female slave as the historical personage of her novel and endowing her with contemporary qualities in tandem with individualism and the ethos of the marketplace, Garrity draws a very modern individual atypical of her time. While, the reader, on one hand, looks back critically on Sumerians’ developed sense of collectivist religion, interpreting it as a threat to self-determination and personal autonomy, on the other hand, s/he appreciates the Sumerians for being the first ancient civilization that bears the imprints of a capitalist market society. The use of history enters the text, in so far as it creates a safe zone for fashioning, perpetuating and justifying the norms and values of the present and reassuring the future.
Authors and Affiliations
Esra ÇOKER
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- EP ID EP630946
- DOI 10.33171/dtcfjournal.2018.58.1.35
- Views 140
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