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Appropriating the “Wild North”: The Image of Canada and Its Exploitation in German Children’s Literature

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Imagining Sameness and Difference in Children's Literature

Part of the book series: Critical Approaches to Children's Literature ((CRACL))

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Abstract

Based on a longitudinal study of images of Canada in German children’s literature, Martina Seifert traces the genesis, development, and appropriations of German heteroimages of Canada in the context of historically changing autoimages. Focusing on texts from three periods of German history—the Weimar Republic, National Socialism, and the postwar era—she explores the construction of Canada as a desperately needed counterimage, which was functionalized according to the changing needs, self-images, and ideologies of the producing culture. The chapter draws attention to the immense variety of appropriations that national images can be subjected to—Canada appears as an adventure playground, a trial battlefield for the Aryan race, and an ecological and spiritual refuge—while also offering insights into the striking solidity and perpetuity that heteroimages can acquire even within entirely divergent sociopolitical systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This research is the foundation of my PhD thesis, written in German (Seifert 2016). Its title translates as “The Image Trap: Canada in German-Language Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Perception and Reception.”

  2. 2.

    All translations into English in this chapter are my own.

  3. 3.

    James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, translated into German since the mid-1880s, were an immense influence upon the German image of Canada. Their continued popularity rested on abridged and simplified versions for the young, which focused almost exclusively on the adventurous, romantic, and exotic aspects of the narratives, while their social and political critique was leveled out.

  4. 4.

    May remains one of the best-known German writers, not least because of the iconic film adaptations of his works after World War II.

  5. 5.

    For a detailed account of the history of Canadian children’s literature in German translation, on which this section about Seton and Roberts is based, see Seifert (2007).

  6. 6.

    Review published anonymously in Jugendschriften-Warte 5 (1938).

  7. 7.

    The popular genre of the “Indian story” was politically functionalized during National Socialism, with the indigenous people employed as objects of demonstration. In a perverted analogy drawn to the contemporary situation in Germany, they represented the struggle of a noble people for their legitimate home ground, a struggle that they, in NS ideology, had to fail, not just because the tribes were not unified but also because they were racially inferior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gymnasium Bleckede, Bleckede, Germany

    Martina Seifert

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  1. Martina Seifert
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany

    Emer O'Sullivan

  2. Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

    Andrea Immel

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Seifert, M. (2017). Appropriating the “Wild North”: The Image of Canada and Its Exploitation in German Children’s Literature. In: O'Sullivan, E., Immel, A. (eds) Imagining Sameness and Difference in Children's Literature. Critical Approaches to Children's Literature. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46169-8_11

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