Talk:D. E. Stevenson

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[edit] Bibliography

In theory, I believe DES's works to have been quite popular enough to each merit their Wikipedia page. In practice, before getting to that stage, I intend to populate this page with a bibliography containing some small details about each novel. Please help! --JennyRad 16:08, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] D.E.Stevenson's Racial, Ethnic Attitudes and Class Conciousness

I have enjoyed reading D.E.Stevenson tremendously for many years. However, I always find myself uncomfortable with one aspect of her writing, that sets her square outside of my world. She was very much a product of her times, in terms of her attitudes towards people of non-European ancestry, mental and learning challenge and (perhaps?) anti-semitic attitudes. She would be an excellent reading choice for anyone doing a study of mid-twentieth century British attitudes towards people in former colonies, people of different social classes, people who are less educated or have learning challenges or were poorly educated, and (I'm not sure about this) people in non-Christian religions.

Having recently been re-reading books that include Caroline, James, Mamie, Jock, etc. these are the books I tend to mention below. I'm sure you could find many other examples in the other books, if this was your field of interest. There is a list of Stevenson's books at http://www.destevenson.org/. My public library system has many of these titles.

Off the top of my head, examples that spring to mind are:

• Lizzie in Music in the Hills and Shoulder the Sky. Lizzie was not comfortable with her husband because, Stevenson indicates, he had greater mental abilities. The worker and the gentry are often set apart in this way. James tests Lizzie while chatting with her. Phrenology (head shape/size) is also something the young doctor relies on to gauge mental ability. See the book The Mismeasure of Man by Gould ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man) for a (humorous but sad) discussion of how phrenology was historically used as a tool to prove racial superiority.
• The worker often seems, acccording to Stevenson, to be naturally less able to acheive intellecutal prowess or ability. Remember in Vittoria Cottage that Sue's husband came to get help from Caroline when pregnant Sue fell on the stairs, not because Caroline was close by and possessed some nursing skills(!), but because he still turned to the "gentry" when challenged, despite his socialist leanings.
• Rhoda and friends, are surprised that Duggie (Shoulder the Sky) is such a gifted artist, given his lower class origins, but is lead to realze it all makes sense when we learn his true lineage.
• In Gerald and Elizabeth and House of the Deer, Gerald not only makes many elitist remarks about African workers, we learned that he saved the day as the great white hunter.
• I don't recall in which book one of the men refers scathingly to the African men as "wooly-heads" (sp?) , but I do remember that Caroline's son James, a heroic and manly type, refers to "working like a black" and Sir Michael reminds Caroline that his wife was "white all through". These were of course, common expressions. I recall my father-in-law saying, "that's white of you". I doubt that people even thought much about there meaning, but they offend our modern ears.
• In "Young Mrs. Savage", an obviously humorous reference is made to people in a photograph that would spark flames in response to this post. It's a word I've never said or written, and I consider it a very offensive word. I recall delivering a horrified impromptu lecture in a sixth grade classroom in response to one of my students using this word. From the context in this story it seems that after the war in Britian it was no big deal to use this word.
• I'm less sure about anti-Semitism. There are some references to evil Nestor in "Music in the Hills" being an Assyrian, though James had thought that he might be Jewish.

and the people in the story seem to think he is true to type. MegTaggart 17:55, 27 July 2007 (UTC)