MStHS 2020-21 Sources Survey

Sources Survey
Introduction

This survey gives an overview of the primary sources and archives to be used in researching a
dissertation provisionally entitled 'Empire and colonies in French and British children's
literature in the interwar period (1919-1938): black people and the representation of the
colonised "other'''.

Four types of sources are involved: interwar works of fiction for children in their French and
English originals; contemporary reviews of these in newspapers and periodicals; material with
information about children's responses to the works concerned; plus, as background, sources
covering the mentality and, specifically, the iconography of French and British imperialism.

Sources and archives

Interwar works of fiction

Potential works were identified by first analysing a set of secondary sources that provide
overviews of interwar children's fiction — either published or widely read in this period —
with significant imperial themes. These sources are listed in the 'Overviews' section of the
Bibliography below; they were originally cited in the Literature Survey. Multiple references
within this set to individual works were used as a signifier of their prominence in the literary
landscape of the time. Information about and comments on their popularity (such as print-runs,
critical reception, take-up by libraries, use as prizes, or deployment in schools) and
representativeness (for example, of sub-genres or tropes) was also taken into account.

Absent pandemic restrictions, the physical archives that would have been consulted in person
as the next step in the identification process are the Bodleian's Opie Collection of Children's
Literature;1 the special collections of the Bibliothèque de L'Heure joyeuse (the first library in
France dedicated to books for children) held at the Médiathèque Françoise Sagan, Paris;2 the
National Art Library's children's literature collections, London;3 and the Centre national de la
littérature pour la jeunesse, Paris.4 Given the circumstances, their e-catalogues were searched
using appropriate keywords. For Britain, searching the Bodleian's Solo, and especially the
temporarily accessible Hathi Trust holdings, was also useful. The outcome for France was
supplemented by trawling the Catalogue général of the Bibliothèque nationale5 via a search on

1
Especially category JJ (periodicals and annuals after 1850).
2
<https://mediathequeducarresaintlazare.wordpress.com/le-fonds-patrimonial-heure-joyeuse/> [accessed 15 Dec.
2020].
3
<http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/national-art-library-childrens-literature-collections/> [accessed 15
Dec. 2020].
4
<http://cnlj.bnf.fr/> [accessed 15 Dec. 2020].
5
<https://catalogue.bnf.fr/recherche-avancee.do?pageRech=rav> [accessed 15 Dec. 2020].

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titles using keywords (e.g. nègre(s), noir(e)(s), cannibale(s), aventures, colonies, etc.) and
names of prominent characters (such as 'Pif et Paf').

Works for detailed examination were then selected in order to throw light on interwar attitudes
expressed by metropolitans, colonisers and settlers towards the black 'other' and give insights
into various aspects of such attitudes. These aspects were provisionally categorised and
grouped under three broad headings: blacks' bodies, clothing, and dwellings; their
temperament, emotions, beliefs, and cultural practices; and their relationships with and views
about settlers, colonisers, and the metropole. This thematic approach is guided by the
impression, still a tentative hypothesis at this stage, that there was no significant change over
the period studied in representations of black people: stories written in a sympathetic and
tolerant register continued to coexist with ones written with a discriminatory and racist slant.

On this basis, the set of French-language works will comprise:

Loulou chez les nègres (Crozière):6 With many adventures and comical encounters with 'native'
customs along the way, the independent, high-spirited Loulou explores Africa by car,
accompanied for some of the way by her father. There are many allusions in the text to the
Croisière noire (Black Crossing) driving expedition, sponsored by Citroën, that traversed
francophone Africa in 1924-25, and this tale could be read, amongst other ways, as a symbolic
attempt to connect up France's African colonies into a whole. The story abounds in racist
stereotypes.

La petite princesse noire (Latouche):7 This book-length story, which won the prestigious Prix
Montoyon, glorifies the benefits of the 'civilising mission' of France in Africa by recounting
how a young slave is freed, 'domesticated', and initiated into French culture by the son of a
good-natured colonial administrator. The girl devotes herself to saving the young man when
he falls ill, and undertakes a succession of adventures in finding a cure. The story contrasts and
highlights the gulf between the 'primitive' and the 'modern' in its depiction of Africans and
colonisers, and propagandises the adulation of the latter by the former.

Tintin au Congo (Hergé):8 Serialised first in Belgium and shortly after in France, this very
popular second volume in the long-running series Les Aventures de Tintin was produced in the
run-up to the 1931 celebration of the colonial achievements of France and other European
powers at the Éxposition coloniale internationale in Paris. Racist stereotyping is overt: in
contrast to Tintin and his dog, the local Congolese are depicted as stupid, cowardly,
superstitious and child-like. Tintin's role as a schoolmaster lecturing a class of children on '…
votre patrie : la Belgique !' is a clear statement of assimilationism, a prominent strand of French
and Belgian colonial ideology. Later editions removed any specifically Belgian references to
make the story more marketable in France.

6
Alphonse Crozière, Loulou chez les nègres (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1929).
7
Augusta Latouche, La petite princesse noire (Paris: Delagrave, 1918).
8
Hergé [Georges Rémi], Tintin au Congo, in Archives Hergé : Totor, C.P. des Hannetons et les versions originales
des albums Tintin – Au pays des Soviets (1929), Au Congo (1930), En Amérique (1931) (Paris: Casterman, 1973).

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L'île des hommes-gorilles (Tossel):9 Here, black people are straightforwardly compared to
monkeys. The gorilla-men are [in my translation] members of 'a cult where Blacks decked out
in monkey-skins meet real-life gorillas and fraternise with them in bizarre rituals'.10 Authored
by a popular writer of adventure-stories and brought out by a mainstream, major and prolific
publisher of works for children, this work is an example of a tale embodying attitudes at the
more extreme end of the tolerance/discrimination spectrum.

Pif et Paf et les cannibales (Bruller and Dubus):11 In this third in a very popular series of
illustrated adventures in verse, Pif and Paf, two resourceful boys, are captured by and then
outwit a group of cannibals, who are portrayed as credulous, superstitious dupes. The story
clearly shows metropolitan perceptions of black bodies, dwellings, and beliefs.

Histoire de Babar le petit éléphant (de Brunhoff):12 Born and raised in a great forest, Babar
runs away to the city after a hunter kills his mother. A rich old lady clothes him, teaches him
manners, and gives him a comfortable home. Though he becomes a celebrity, Babar feels
drawn back to the forest. After he returns, he and his cousin Céleste eventually become king
and queen of the elephants. This well-received tale can be read in several ways: for example,
as an allegory of French colonisation, with Babar as a 'native' brought to the metropole,
acculturated, and sent back on a civilising mission; or as a comedy about the tensions between
French colonialist aspirations and the lure of French domesticity.

The set of British works will comprise:

Tiger Tim's Annual:13 Stories set in the imaginary land of Darkietown first appeared in many
of the 1920s comic annuals published by the Amalgamated Press, continuing till the mid-1950s.
Its black, happy-go-lucky inhabitants, the so-called 'little nigs', have big lips, sticking-our ears,
and scanty hair. Elements such as the 'mammy' figure and a character called Rastus suggest a
connection to the West Indies, and specifically to Jamaica. Darkietown society is full of fun
and leisure, and the Darkietown stories give an interesting perspective on British views of the
black inhabitants of the West Indian colonies.

Jack, Sam and Pete in Africa (Clarke Hook):14 As the preface puts it, '[Pete is] Carefree and
coloured […] one of the very few negro characters to have attained a predominant place in
"white" fiction …'. Many adventures featuring this trio were published from 1901 to 1923 (and
then reprinted), and a silent film appeared in 1919;15 set most often in Africa, the tales
demonstrate the ambivalence of contemporary British views of relationships between black

9
Paul Tossel, L'île des hommes-gorilles (Paris: Ferenczi, 1937).
10
Ibid., p.7, '… une secte ou les Noirs affublés de dépouilles de singes rencontrent les véritables gorilles et
fraternisent avec eux aux cours d'étranges cérémonies'.
11
Jean Bruller and Hermin Dubus, Pif et Paf chez les cannibales (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1929).
12
Jean de Brunhoff, Histoire de Babar le petit éléphant (Paris: Jardin des Modes, 1931).
13
Tiger Tim's Annual 1924 (London: Amalgamated Press, 1924); Tiger Tim's Annual 1925 (London:
Amalgamated Press, 1925); Tiger Tim's Annual 1926 (London: Amalgamated Press, 1926).
14
S. Clarke Hook, Jack, Sam and Pete in Africa, The Boys' Friend Complete Library No. 538 (London:
Amalgamated Press, 1936). Original publication date (before 1923) to be determined.
15
See <https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6be1b092> [accessed 4 Jan. 2021].

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and white people. Interestingly, while largely depicted as a buffoon and sidekick in the early
stories, Pete was more often portrayed as the cleverest of the trio and the central figure by the
time this tale appeared. A group of white youths containing a favoured black 'chum' became a
popular formula in other serials.

Sylvia's Secret (Marchant):16 In this 'plucky girl' story, one of many written by the author,
Sylvia's father is injured while saving one of his plantation workers from an attack by an
electric eel. She must take over management of the plantation, which is located on an island
off Jamaica, adjust to the revelation that she and her father are descended from a notorious
pirate, and cope with a rebellion by the black 'hands'. A strong message of the book, articulated
in exchanges between Sylvia and the 'hands', is that the imperial power is doing the 'natives' a
favour by staying on, despite the risks to colonisers' health and well-being.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle (Lofting):17 In this first story in the Dolittle series, and one of four
books set in Africa or with African characters, the Doctor becomes a vet after his parrot teaches
him how to speak with animals. News about his ability spreads worldwide, and the monkeys
of Africa ask him to come and help cure a serious illness spreading between them. During his
many adventures, the Doctor meets a king who voices an African perspective on the impact of
colonisation (unusual in the fiction of the time). There is some blurring of the line between the
fairly civilised monkeys and the not-so-civilised Africans, and the Doctor's curiosity about
simian culture is illuminatingly reminiscent of how European anthropologists of this era (and
some missionaries) approached the study of African societies.

The Young Colonists (Henty)18 Set against the background of the Zulu and the First Boer Wars,
this is a typical example of a work by an author who remained as wildly popular during the
interwar years as in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. All his many books remained in
print until 1955, and some were even reprinted in the early 1960s.19 The Zulu War section of
The Young Colonists, in particular, shows colonial settler attitudes to Africa and black Africans
that evidently resonated with readers well into the twentieth century.

Biggles in Africa (Johns):20 Flying adventure stories were enormously popular in the 1930s. In
this tale, the eleventh in a sequence of about a hundred book-length stories widely read by
adolescent boys, Biggles and his side-kicks travel to East Africa and southern Sudan to search
for a young pilot who disappeared while attempting to break the record for flying from London
to Cape Town. Descriptions of their encounters with the landscape and their feelings and
reactions to 'natives' (which include some positive characterisations) give a nuanced view of
British attitudes towards Africans. A more negative view of black people and their

16
Bessie Marchant, Sylvia's Secret: A Tale of the West Indies (London: Blackie, 1924).
17
Hugh Lofting, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing
Adventures in Foreign Parts (New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes, 1920) <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/
501/501-h/501-h.htm> [accessed 27 Dec. 2020]
18
G. A. Henty, The Young Colonists: A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars (London: Blackie, 1885).
19
John M. MacKenzie (ed.), 'Imperialism and juvenile literature' in Propaganda and Empire: the manipulation
of British public opinion 1880-1960 (Manchester: MUP, 1988), pp. 199-227 (pp. 219-20).
20
W. E. Johns, Biggles in Africa (London: OUP, 1936).

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environment, however, is expressed in two works featuring the West Indies: Biggles Flies
Again (1934), and Biggles Flies West (1937). These will be examined if time allows.

With the pandemic in full swing, originals of the above works, save for Tintin au Congo and
The Story of Doctor Dolittle, were sourced and bought online. The Tintin purchase is a
facsimile, verified by the author's estate, of the original edition, while the Story of Doctor
Dolittle is accessible via Project Gutenberg. Care has been taken to obtain, or to access online,
only first editions or their reprints, as in some cases the editions brought out after WWII were
edited to reflect changing attitudes to empire, colonies, colonised peoples and ethnicity, as well
as to gender roles and depictions of sexuality, violence (to people, animals, and the
environment), and drug-taking.

A handful of works may be added to the corpus as the dissertation takes shape.

Reviews in newspapers and periodicals

Reviews of French works will be explored via the digitised holdings of the principal daily
papers hosted by the Bibliothèque nationale.21 Research will initially centre on Le Figaro, Le
Temps (the predecessor of Le Monde), and L'Humanité.

Reviews of British works will be sought via online databases including The British Newspaper
Archive,22 British Library Newspapers,23 and the archives of the Daily Mail,24 The Mirror,25
The Times,26 The Telegraph,27 and the Sunday Times.28

Children's responses and reading habits

For British children, primary sources will be consulted via Mass Observation Online using the
initial search-term 'children AND reading, 1937-1939'.29 Research continues for a French
equivalent.30 Anecdotal evidence of reader responses can be found in several of the works in
the 'Overviews' part of the published secondary sources section of the Bibliography below.
Some unpublished research is also available.31

21
https://gallica.bnf.fr/html/und/presse-et-revues/les-principaux-quotidiens
22
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
23
https://www.gale.com/intl/primary-sources/british-library-newspapers
24
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/daily-mail-historical-archive
25
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/the-mirror-historical-archive-1903-2000
26
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/the-times-digital-archive
27
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/the-telegraph-historical-archive
28
https://www.gale.com/intl/c/sunday-times-digital-archive
29
https://www.massobservation.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/AdvancedSearch
30
Response awaited from web-form request on 4 Jan. 2021 to help-desk of Bibliothèque nationale.
31
E.g., Joseph McAleer, 'Popular literature and reading habits in Britain, 1914-1950' (unpublished PhD thesis,
University of Oxford, 1989).

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Imperial mentality and iconography

Quotations and extracts from primary sources contained in many of the secondary sources
covered in the Literature Survey (especially social and cultural histories) will be the main
means of building up an imaginative appreciation of the mentality of the time. Films, newsreels,
songs, and radio and stage productions are firmly not within the purview of this dissertation,
though a serendipitous eye will be kept open for anything with imperial themes made or
composed for a juvenile French or British audience between the wars.32

To deepen awareness of the mémoire coloniale de l'Afrique française, two works will be
consulted: an authoritative, book-length collection of over a thousand representative images of
l'Afrique française sourced from a wide range of advertisements, postcards, stamps, posters,
books and other printed matter, together with reproductions of paintings, sculptures, ornaments
and other objects;33 and the official guide to the 1931 Éxposition coloniale internationale.34
For a better grasp of the British 'imperial imaginary', the sources are a book-length collection
of images,35 the image gallery of Empire Online,36 and the official guide to the 1924-25 British
Empire Exhibition in London.37

Conclusion

The works of fiction selected will be the focal points of research into similarities and
differences between the ways that interwar French and British children's literature with
imperialist themes handled representations of black people. Reviews and other responses to
these works, considered alongside other evidence reconstructing the mentality of the time,
should enable some conclusions to be drawn about the reasons for the distinctive characteristics
of each national literary domain.

32
For example, newsreels of Empire Day celebrations via <http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/event/empire-
celebrations> [accessed 6 Jan. 2021].
33
Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard and Laurent Gervereau (eds.), Images et colonies. Iconographie et
propaganda coloniale sur l'Afrique française de 1880 à 1962 (Paris: BDIC-ACHAC, 1993).
34
André Demaison, Éxposition coloniale internationale, Paris 1931 : Guide officiel (Paris: Mayeux, 1931).
35
Ashley Jackson, Illustrating Empire: A Visual History of British Imperialism (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2011).
36
<https://www.empire.amdigital.co.uk/FurtherResources/VisualResources/Grid> [accessed 14 Jan. 2021].
37
G. C. Lawrence (ed.), The British Empire Exhibition 1924 Official Guide (London: Fleetway Press, 1924).

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Bibliography of works cited or referred to

Abbreviations
ACHAC Association pour la connaissance de l'histoire de l'Afrique contemporaine
BDIC Bibliothèque de documentation internationale contemporaine
LUP Liverpool University Press
MUP Manchester University Press
OUP Oxford University Press
PUR Presses universitaires de Rennes

Published Primary Sources

Bruller, Jean, and Hermin Dubus, Pif et Paf chez les cannibales (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1929)
Brunhoff, Jean de, Histoire de Babar le petit éléphant (Paris: Jardin des Modes, 1931)
Crozière, Alphonse, Loulou chez les nègres (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1929)
Demaison, André, Éxposition coloniale internationale, Paris 1931 : Guide officiel (Paris:
Mayeux, 1931)
Henty, G. A., The Young Colonists: A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars (London: Blackie,
1885)
Hergé [Georges Rémi], Tintin au Congo, in Archives Hergé : Totor, C.P. des Hannetons et les
versions originales des albums Tintin : Au pays des Soviets (1929), Au Congo (1930), En
Amérique (1931) (Paris: Casterman, 1973)
Hook, S. Clarke, Jack, Sam and Pete in Africa, The Boys' Friend Complete Library No. 538
(London: Amalgamated Press, 1936)
Johns, W. E., Biggles in Africa (London: OUP, 1936)
Latouche, Augusta, La petite princesse noire (Paris: Delagrave, 1918)
Lawrence, G. C. (ed.), The British Empire Exhibition 1924 Official Guide (London: Fleetway
Press, 1924)
Lofting, Hugh, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home
and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts (New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes, 1920)
<https://www.gutenberg.org/files/501/501-h/501-h.htm> [accessed 27 Dec. 2020]
Marchant, Bessie, Sylvia's Secret: A Tale of the West Indies (London: Blackie, 1924)
Tiger Tim's Annual 1924 (London: Amalgamated Press, 1924)
Tiger Tim's Annual 1925 (London: Amalgamated Press, 1925)
Tiger Tim's Annual 1926 (London: Amalgamated Press, 1926)
Tossel, Paul, L'île des hommes-gorilles (Paris: Ferenczi, 1937)

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Published Secondary Sources

Imperial iconography
Bancel, Nicolas, Pascal Blanchard and Laurent Gervereau (eds.), Images et colonies.
Iconographie et propaganda coloniale sur l'Afrique française de 1880 à 1962 (Paris: BDIC-
ACHAC, 1993)
Jackson, Ashley, Illustrating Empire: A Visual History of British Imperialism (Oxford: The
Bodleian Library, 2011)
Overviews of interwar children's fiction with significant imperial themes38
Castle, Kathryn, Britannia's Children: Reading Colonialism through Children's Books and
Magazines (Manchester: MUP, 1996)
Dine, Philip, 'The French Colonial Empire in Juvenile Fiction: From Jules Verne to Tintin' in
Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques, vol. 23, no. 2 (Spring 1997), 177-203
Ferrall, Charles, and Anna Jackson, Juvenile Literature and British Society, 1850-1950: The
Age of Adolescence (New York & London: Routledge, 2010)
Jallat, Denis, 'La littérature pour jeunes, « l'innocence » au service de l'idéologie coloniale',
Outre-Mers, 94, no. 356-357 (2007), 235-64
Knox, Katelyn E., 'Civilized into the Civilizing Mission' in Race on Display in 20th- and 21st-
Century France (Liverpool: LUP, 2016), pp. 21-44
Kutzer, Daphne M., Empire's children: empire and imperialism in classic British children's
books (London: Routledge, 2000)
Lassus, Alexandra de, Africains et asiatiques dans la littérature de jeunesse de l'entre-deux-
guerres (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2006)
Lévêque, Mathilde, Écrire pour la jeunesse en France et en Allemagne dans l'entre-deux-
guerres (Rennes: PUR, 2011)
MacKenzie, John M. (ed.), 'Imperialism and juvenile literature' in Propaganda and Empire:
the manipulation of British public opinion 1880-1960 (Manchester: MUP, 1988), pp. 199-227
Pigeon, Gerard G., 'Black Icons of Colonialism: African Characters in French Children's Comic
Strip Literature', Social Identities, vol. 2, no. 1 (1996), 135-59
Richards, Jeffrey (ed.), Imperialism and Juvenile Literature (Manchester: MUP, 1989)
Sands-O'Connor, Karen, Soon come home to this island: West Indians in British children's
literature (New York & London: Routledge, 2008)
Smith, Michelle J., Empire in British Girls' Literature and Culture: Imperial Girls
(Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)

Unpublished Theses
McAleer, Joseph, 'Popular literature and reading habits in Britain, 1914-1950' (unpublished
PhD thesis, University of Oxford, 1989)

38
Each cited in context in Literature Survey. Used in selecting works of interwar fiction to be studied in depth.

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