Nurturing spirituality through picture books in children’s literature: A focus on the upton’s golliwogg stories

Abstract

Children’s spirituality is an innate disposition of children that has been referred to as an is-ness for life and picture books have the capacity to nurture children’s spirituality. For instance, the Upton Golliwogg picture books invited children to enter a world not their own and to identify with new characters and experiences that would awaken their imaginations. There have been many misrepresentations of the Golliwogg which have led to him being labelled as a racist and politically incorrect image. However, the Upton Golliwogg was a character who brought a new kind of spiritual presence to childhood literature. Accordingly, this chapter recognizes the Upton Golliwogg as a spiritual character and it examines the notion that Golliwogg’s spirituality was communicated to children as a way of being in the world. Rhetorical narrative criticism and a visual analysis of picture books were used to determine the spiritual qualities of the Upton Golliwogg. Two themes were identified: freedom and a paradoxical way of being. Further investigation showed these to be spiritual traits of Golliwogg. Indeed, his key spiritual qualities of kind-heartedness and imagination were legitimate ways of knowing and being in the world. These are qualities, amongst others, that can be encouraged and nurtured in children.