Pedagogical Possibility and Limitation of Children's Literature for Teaching Difficult Knowledge of War

• In Event: Moving Through/to Possibilities: Navigating Uncertainties, Pathologies, and Anxieties in Troubling Times

Abstract

This article discusses how the Korean War is portrayed in the children’s literature published in the US over 70 years since the war. Seven children’s books were identified and analyzed with a theoretical lens of difficult knowledge. Two key findings are: 1) there were various accounts on the war across the texts, including the Korean War as a human/animal suffering, US benevolent mission, animal heroism, and unfinished war; 2) difficult knowledge of the war was selectively in/excluded. The unanimously included was wartime suffering whereas the unanimously excluded was US implication in the suffering. The findings indicate pedagogical possibility and limitation of children’s literature for teaching difficult knowledge of war.

Author

• Sohyun An, Kennesaw State University