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Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
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Author:  JB [ Wed Feb 24, 2010 10:34 am ]
Post subject:  Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty was first published by The Women’s Press in 1992 and reissued by Bettany Press in 2004. A sequel, A World of Women: Growing Up in the Girls’ School Story, was published in 1999 and is due to be discussed in a few months’ time. This is the text from the back of the Bettany Press edition:

Quote:
“Girl’s boarding schools have been lampooned as antiquated, irrelevant and, worse, even dangerous and reactionary. And yet thousands of women have read – and continue to read – these stories with enormous pleasure and affirmation.

In this lively and controversial book, first published in 1992, Rosemary Auchmuty takes a radical new look at this guilty delight, asking just why so many readers are addicted to the genre – and discovers a powerful world of independent young women living together without the dominating influence of men.”


The book concentrates on EBD, Oxenham, Dorita Fairlea Bruce and Enid Blyton. It opens with a summary of the school story and an introduction to each of the writers. It is then broken down into chapters, each dealing with a theme - the schoolgirl code, heroines, bosom friends, the crush and training to be wives and mothers. Auchmuty says that in this book she has “eschewed literary criticism altogether” but has placed the works in a historical context.

In the preface, Auchmuty says:

Quote:
“This is a world where authority figures as well as colleagues and comrades are female, where the action is carried on by girls and women, and decisions are made by them. Girls and women rise to the challenges presented by ideals such as honour, loyalty and the team spirit. Women’s emotional and social energies are directed towards other women, and women’s friendships are seen as positive, not destructive or competitive, and sufficient unto themselves. School stories offer female readers positive role models to set against a reality which is often restrictive or hostile to them.”


Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it?

Did you agree with Auchmuty’s choice of authors?

Was it acceptable to read girls’ school stories when you were growing up or were they considered unsuitable in any way?

Do you agree that the writers discussed in the book, and particularly EBD, represent “a powerful world of independent young women living together without the dominating influence of men”?

Did you find that school stories provide you with positive role models?

Please discuss these and any other questions/thoughts you have about this book.
Author:  RoseCloke [ Wed Feb 24, 2010 10:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I hadn't heard of this book before, but it sounds very interesting.

More generally speaking, I grew up on a steady diet of EBD, Trevizion, Blyton and any other girls' stories I could get my hands on.

At the time they didn't strike me as gendered (aside from the obvious that they're set in single sex schools) and I read them because I desperately wanted to go to boarding school - especially the Chalet School!

I think Blyton had a more negative than positive impact. She reinforced some very negative stereotypes that my parents, being fairly elderly, also brought me up with. Some of these were about the role of women (appealing to men for help - although I admit CS does this too), but more damagingly about relations between people of different backgrounds. Most of the CS books I read were heavily edited, the Blyton books less so. I got into some horrible trouble for repeating something I'd read at school and not realising what the problem was - as a child I took things horrifically seriously and very much at face-value.

The CS definitely gave me a thirst for visiting other countries and learning other languages. As I've been discussing in another thread, Miss Annersley had a definite impact on my grammar!

None of my friends seemed to read the same stories - I think that they'd gone out of vogue by the time I was growing up (1990s) and I only read them because my mother, aunts and cousins had.

I'm sure when they were written they provided a more independent series of role models - I'd be interested to see what older CBB members make of this - but certainly when I was growing up I don't think it was needed so much. Modern children's books have plenty of strong women and I certainly was always brought up with the impression that I didn't have to rely on a man (more recently my mother's taken to telling me outright not to do so - in front of my father! :lol: ).
Author:  Abi [ Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I really enjoyed this book - far more than I did You're A Brick, Angela, I think partly because it concentrated on authors I know and love, but also because the whole book has a real atmosphere of love and enjoyment of the books and the genre as a whole. Not only that, but Rosemary Auchmuty seems to feel that the books do have an intrinsic worth in themselves, not just as fun books for girls to read.

It would have been nice to see a wider range of authors, but I can see why she narrowed it down - there are so many that it would just get too confusing. And if she had to choose, I think these are good authors to choose, since they are by far the most well-known school-story writers (apart from Angela Brazil, but her books are, I think, a little different in that they feel more old-fashioned and she wrote no series).

I do agree with the quote - that school stories represent “a powerful world of independent young women living together without the dominating influence of men”, though I think this may sometimes have been unintentional on the part of the authors, who outwardly subscribed to the patriarchal organisation of society. Actually, I think EBD, of the four authors represented, probably has the least independent women because the Jack, Jem and so on have a huge amount of influence over certain parts of the school.

On the other hand, the Chalet School is essentially run by women for women, and I think especially at the time they were written, this was a powerful message (I may of course have this wrong, being only 26!). But even reading them today there is a strong feeling of female solidarity. Even speaking physically, the girls have a lot of power - it's Joey who rescues Grizel from the Tiernjoch and Elisaveta from Cosimo, Blossom batters her way out of the Art studio, Jack and Gilly rescue the cat, the triplets save Cecil, and so on.

Most people were reading Point Horror and Goosebumps when I was doggedly collecting EBD, Just William and Arthur Ransome. In Year 11 my English teacher said she thought I should widen my literary horizons, to which I responded with a disdainful look!

(Edited, as Cecil's name is apparently now Minette!)
Author:  RubyGates [ Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
Good for you Abi! I think your peers should have widened their literary horizons. Having said that I did have a passion for the American Sweet Dreams teen romance series when I was a teenager. I got rid of them all when I got married and I really regret it now :oops: . I was still reading as many CS books as I could get hold of though.
Author:  Alison H [ Wed Feb 24, 2010 11:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
My primary school teacher complained to my parents that I wrote like Enid Blyton, and my secondary school English teacher was, ah, somewhat less than impressed when we each had to read out a passage from a book of our choice and I chose No Castanets At The Wells :lol: . However, I am now "famed" for my Hilda-esque obsession with such things as not using "can" for "may", and I (apologies if this sounds like swanking, as Grizel would say) got an A+ for my essay on Austrian history when I was at university :lol: .

When I was younger, I never really thought much about the books showing a female-dominated world, just because most boarding schools at the time at which the books were set would have been single sex and would mainly have employed teachers of the same gender and so the books had to be all-female. I think that there are a lot of positives in the books - loyalty, honour, team spirit, etc - and I think that this applies particularly to the CS books where there's a lack of the sort of nastiness we see in the Malory Towers and St Clare's books, and where we see friendships continuing into adulthood and also close friendships amongst the staff as well as the pupils.

I do however find that there are a lot of contradictions in the CS books. Girls are meant to be strong, yet there are a lot of scenes involving people getting hysterical (I get hysterical myself frequently, but I'm not meant to be a strong, calm CS girl :lol: ). Girls are not supposed to be spineless jellyfish, yet we frequently see adult women being "dosed" by their husbands and on several occasions we see Jem making decisions on school affairs. If there's an accident, it's often man who saves the day. Male doctors seem to have more power than anyone else. It's very frustrating, because the series starts with Madge making the very courageous decision to set the school up in the first place - and we're told that it's generally Madge, not Dick, who makes the decisions in the Bettany family - and there are a lot of strong, capable women in the series. It seems to go wrong when they get married!
Author:  ammonite [ Thu Feb 25, 2010 12:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I haven't actually read the book under discussion but I might look out for it now.

However, when I was growing up I also don't think I thought of the books as particularly female dominated. I don't know if this is because I balanced it out by reading Biggles, Jennings and others and then brought the two worlds together with Arthur Ransome and Malcolm Saville. however, the motives in all the books are the same; be loyal to your friends, you can be brave when you need to be and a good team spirit.
I was another who was reading these when others were reading Goosebumps etc. And although a voracious reader, after reading a few of them I didn't really have an overwhelming urge to read them again.
I think the authors chosen should have included Angela Brazil as the stand alone school story is very much part of the genre and she is a recognised leader of school stories. It could have also lead to comparison. Having said that, I was reading one of hers this morning and was thinking how much more the new girl would have enjoyed her new school in the welcoming atmosphere of the CS rather than almost being ostracised for no other reason than she was new!
Author:  JB [ Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I've had another look at the intro to the book and Auchmuty says there were three reasons why she didn't include Brazil:

She belongs to a slightly earlier generation than the writers covered.
There was already a short study of her work by Gillian Freeman.
Most important, she didn't write series so we don't see characters develop.

The last reason makes a lot of sense to me as it would have been virtually impossible for Auchmuty to compare like with like in relation to the other writers.
Author:  ChubbyMonkey [ Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I haven't read the book, but I wanted to join in the discussion. I was another reading (and writing!) CS and EB when the rest of my classmates were reading completely different things (late '90s) In fact, I only got into Harry Potter properly after I met my best friend - before that, I was lost in the world of books that my mum had owned. Possibly because things like Goosebumps gave me nightmares :oops: Though the FF did that in one book as well!

I would have said that the CS was seemingly male-dominated, but I think at the same time it's difficult to differentiate between certain character's roles as a doctor and as a man. Would Daisy, say, have been given equal respect and consulted equally by virtue of being a doctor?
Author:  Alison H [ Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
ChubbyMonkey wrote:

I would have said that the CS was seemingly male-dominated, but I think at the same time it's difficult to differentiate between certain character's roles as a doctor and as a man. Would Daisy, say, have been given equal respect and consulted equally by virtue of being a doctor?


There's a glorious scene in which Carola Johnstone and Jean Ackroyd bump into Daisy, and, when she introduces herself, react in the sort of "OMG, you're Daisy Venables, the doctor," way in which most people might react to bumping into a favourite celebrity :lol:. I think Daisy was too nice and laid-back to assert her authority in the way in which Jem and Jack did, though: I can't imagine her marching around ordering people off to bed or administering doses whenever she felt like it, but then I can't imagine Eugen or Laurie doing that either.

Sorry, I seem to've got off the point :oops: . It's the other way round at the school - although male teachers never get told off for being horrible to pupils, they don't seem to have much authority either.
Author:  JB [ Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I like to think that before Daisy married Lawrie, she sat him down and warned him what would happen if he ever tried to "dose" her (and that he was appalled by the idea of doing something so unethical anyway).

The male teachers who do exert authority only do so by being extremely bad tempered eg Herr Laubach and Herr Anserl (two characters whom I struggle to differentiate).
Author:  Nightwing [ Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
Quote:
“...women’s friendships are seen as positive, not destructive or competitive, and sufficient unto themselves.”


That's a lovely quote, and so true. So often movies and books play women off against each other - best friends fighting over the same man, or the same job, or the same dress - whereas in EBD's world competition is 'healthy', and being a 'good sport' and thinking about the needs of other people are both intrinsic values.
Author:  trig [ Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I have to join in just to say I was another who read all the oldies (80s with me). But I remember when we were in the fifth year I said as much when we were all discussing books, and it was amazing how many of the others had read CS! In some ways it's sad that there's no longer a cheap pb version, as I'm sure some converts met the CS this way, browsing in a bookshop or library. I love the GGB editions but they're not in the price range for kids, and if you didn't know about the CS beforehand, you wouldn't find them, if you can see what I mean.
Author:  Josette [ Sat Feb 27, 2010 5:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
I read the books in the 80s too, although I don't know if anyone in my age group did - certainly it would have been deeply unfashionable to admit to it. (But then I was deeply unfashionable - and I'm sure to this day most of the people I was at school with think that I just didn't know what sort of music and books I was supposed to be into, as opposed to knowing but not being interested!)

I haven't read this book, but I think I might get it - I haven't read any EJO or DFB, although I'm guessing that won't be a problem? Really I just wanted to agree with trig that it was a good thing that the pbs came out: it's certainly the way I got into the CS - but I am now fuming periodically at what the cuts have made me miss out on! (I feel I should apologise to Miss Annersley for the grammar of that last phrase, but can't think of a better way of putting it.)
Author:  Nesomja [ Sat Feb 27, 2010 11:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Books About the CS: A World of Girls by Rosemary Auchmuty
Well I bought both Rosemary Auchmuty's books after the discussion on 'You're a Brick Angela' and I enjoyed them both, although I think actually I preferred her sequel. I think her basic thesis is that these books were ways for their authors to write about female only communities and that the relationships between women and girls are central is true, but I think she goes on about it a bit! I also think that she really didn't need to include EB, as her books don't stand up to the same degree of analysis as the others.
Reading this book made me go back to a few CS and others to reread, and also to value them more - reading books like these was definitely frowned upon when I was growing up - I read all the time from the age of about 5 and my teachers were constantly telling my parents I needed to read more non-fiction and recommending I read 'the classics' far too early - result, I read Dickens and Hardy at 9 and was turned off for life, should have stuck with CS for a few more years. I got into the Armada paperbacks from the school library but they were a guilty secret.
However, reading this book made me consider her thesis and start to look at the books differently. I think that she is a bit over-positive though about the strong female role models etc - doesn't she even argue at one point that by making marriage so idealised in the books the authors are actually subverting it themselves, since they were all (apart from EB) single themselves? I also think that her arguments are actually (sadly) a bit less true for CS than for EJO and DFB, where, from the books I've read, the male characters really do hardly exist and certainly don't go around making any pronouncements in the way men do in CS. There are similarities though - I liked her discussion of how in both CS and EJO girls have to profess complete lack of interest in men and 'all that stuff' until the moment of their engagement when all is suddenly revealed and the scales drop from their eyes!
I felt too that Rosemary Auchmuty really wanted these books to be about lesbian relationships, although maybe I'm just reading too much into what she says. I liked her discussion of the 'special friendships' in both CS and EJO - hadn't reallly noticed them before but now they stick out everywhere.
I did think her arguments mostly work best for EJO though - who seemed to leave schools far behind fairly early on in her series, focusing instead on the girls/women and their relationships.
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