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"Britishness" vs Spineless Jellyfishness

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#1: "Britishness" vs Spineless Jellyfishness Author: Xanthe, Location: London

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:36 am
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As is so often the case when awake & in pain, I am pondering. Specifically, I am pondering notions of Britishness (esp in relation to collective responsibility for the Empire) as suggested in the CS books. Unlike various other authors, I think EBD is less prone to asserting a kind of moral superiority based on nationality in the books - not for her the only-the-English-understand-the-idea-of-honour lark...

However, the school, from the outset, seems to be promoting "Britishness". The concern of the girls to be as like an English school as possible is a prime example, and I would argue that the anti-jellyfish idea is the result of working towards an ideal of womanhood that belongs to a nation concerned with peopling and maintaining an Empire. No space for spineless jellyfish in the outposts of the Empire. Even the more unusual sort, the vertebrate kind, probably need not apply...

I am wondering how other people view the constructs of womanhood with particular reference to this idea of "Britishness" in the series? I am not certain how much of a feature it is and how tied it really is to nationality... Is there an implication, though, that although non-British pupils may have/gain the desired qualities, it is because of the British influence?

There is a lot of stereotyping in the books - wild Irish scamps, precise Germanic types, chique French women - but I think the British, while perhaps being presented as more diverse, are generally presented as conforming to an ideal - or, if they deviate from it, as being essentially "unBritish", even if this is not explictly stated.

#2: Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 1:45 pm
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I don't think I ever saw that as a particularly British quality, although now you come to mention it....

I rather saw it that the school wanted to raise strong, courageous, relatively independent women to earn their own livings where necessary (even Joey originally planned to be a lady-in-waiting to Elisaveta, and only dropped that idea when Madge appeared to need her more) and to bring up the next generation.

Even as late as "Lavender", you remember, Lavender's aunt wished her (L) not to be exposed to war news and the dreadful things that were happening, but was told very firmly that the Chalet School didn't shelter their girls from such news (and given that all too many former pupils were probably suffering dreadfully, quite right, too!).

I don't think it was "Britishness", just courage, that they wanted to infuse.

EBD does stereotype, but I don't think it's necessarily just nationalistic - look how if you are a Lucy, you are automatically described as "puckish", and she tends to pick up one adjective or phrase to describe a girl, and overuse it! So all Lucys are puckish, all Irish girls are "Wild scamps", etc etc etc.

I hope you are feeling better today.

#3: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri May 11, 2007 3:02 pm
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There is some element of the supposed British ideal - which is maybe also the Guiding and Scouting ideal? - of strong women etc. However, in other ways the CS isn't like that at all - people going to bed for a week when they get their feet wet, Joey (who isn't at all good in a crisis, especially when she's younger) collapsing on the way from Guernsey to England, much less obsession with games than in Malory Towers etc.

There are other things that some other writers present as being very British qualities too - not telling tales, not cheating, not being "underhand", not betraying people's trust, etc - but I don't think that EBD does stereotype British girls as exemplifying these qualities. Joyce Linton passes notes, Stacie Benson tells tales, Juliet agrees to be filmed against Madge's express wishes, Grizel runs when Madge has trusted her to stay in, etc - unlike St Clare's where it's usually French Claudine who does things like that - whereas it's clear that people like Gisela would never do so.

I've written that really badly, but it is Friday afternoon ... What I mean is that many of the qualities prized by the school are those often seen as being stereotypically British, but that there isn't as much negative stereotyping of non-British girls as there is in other books.

#4: Author: Róisín, Location: Ireland

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:09 pm
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Xanthe when I read your post I thought immediately of The School by the River. Even more so than School At, it promotes notions of Britishness (or it might actually be Englishness - it's been a while since I read it) and what that means, especially in a foreign context. I think the girls are under more pressure to act 'as an English girl should' when they are abroad, so this stands out brightly in SbtR & SA. I don't think it features much in books set in England (Gerry etc) or in the later CS books, that much.

#5: Author: Xanthe, Location: London

Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 11:22 pm
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Having now read River I agree...

It's not something I think is a massive feature of the books, but I did sometimes wonder about it being implicit at times.

I find the whole idea of a school of mixed nationalities existing at a time when national identity was so important & indeed contentious really quite fascinating, from a historical point of view (even though the school is not actually, technically, real..)

#6: Author: jennifer, Location: Taiwan

Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 3:16 am
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It's interesting to contrast the view of Miss Browne of St Scholastica's to the Chalet School. She first attempts to attract Joey to the school by running down foreign teaching methods, and later disparages the honour of non British girls.

Quote:

'Oh, yes,' interrupted the lady; 'I heard there was one here, but run by a Frenchwoman, and we all know what their ideas on education are! Now here, the girls will be under English supervision, and will learn good solid facts.'

and later

Quote:

And what grieves me the most,' she went on, 'is the fact that foreign girls have shown them how to behave well. We haven't a girl in the school who isn't of British birth and training, and yet they have shown less sense of honour and responsibility than those Austrian and French and German girls in the Chalet School!

Now *that's* national prejudice!

#7: Author: Loryat,

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 3:48 pm
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Alison H wrote:

There is some element of the supposed British ideal - which is maybe also the Guiding and Scouting ideal? - of strong women etc. However, in other ways the CS isn't like that at all - people going to bed for a week when they get their feet wet, Joey (who isn't at all good in a crisis, especially when she's younger) collapsing on the way from Guernsey to England, much less obsession with games than in Malory Towers etc.

There are other things that some other writers present as being very British qualities too - not telling tales, not cheating, not being "underhand", not betraying people's trust, etc - but I don't think that EBD does stereotype British girls as exemplifying these qualities. Joyce Linton passes notes, Stacie Benson tells tales, Juliet agrees to be filmed against Madge's express wishes, Grizel runs when Madge has trusted her to stay in, etc - unlike St Clare's where it's usually French Claudine who does things like that - whereas it's clear that people like Gisela would never do so.

*nodding vigorously*

Jennifer, I always think that when you look at your quotes from Miss Browne you realise how ahead of her time EBD was. I sometimes wonder if it's due to prejudice like this that EBD was forced to kill off Mdlle Lepattre.

IMO, it's generally class prejudice rather than racial prejudice that's the problem in EBD. One thing that always annoys me is how the maids are always having hysterics while CS babies are calm (air raids etc). Did EBD really think that all working people were screaming their heads off while getting blitzed? Mad

#8: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun May 20, 2007 4:02 pm
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Dunno about screaming - my Dad was a very young baby/child during the War (born Oct 1939) - he can remember air raids, listening for bombs dropping. About the only thing that sticks in his mind was hearing one bomb and his brother saying 'this one's for us' - it hit a house in the next street.

And my mum can remember her grandmother, on a Sunday lunchtime, seeing the German Bombers going overhead - on their way to bomb Southampton - shaking her carving knife at them and shouting 'Go home you buggers' in a broad Hampshire/Dorset accent!

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