Papers by Rebecca Kambuta
Lit: Literature Interpretation Theory, 2011
In the cinema, there is little redemption for the evil child. As the perpetrator of crimes rangin... more In the cinema, there is little redemption for the evil child. As the perpetrator of crimes ranging from selfishness and bullying to wanton destruction and murder, the evil child threatens our belief in childhood innocence and goodness and is therefore made into a monstrous aberration. As sociologist Chris Jenks argues, children who do not display the appropriate characteristics (i.e., innocence, goodness, and sexual naivety) are symbolically expelled from the category of childhood (128). Accordingly, since the evil children in such films as The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy 1956), Village of the Damned (Rilla Wolf 1960), and The Good Son (Joseph Ruben 1993) show no remorse or ability to change, they must be destroyed at the end of the narrative. Fortunately, when it comes to television, redemption is more easy to come by; indeed, since 2004, thanks to the UK production company Ricochet and Mary Poppins wanna-be Jo Frost, the business of redeeming evil children, or tiny terrors, has become prime-time viewing material in the series Supernanny. While fictional evil children are often too evil to be redeemed, Supernanny insists that real tiny terrors can be changed—or, in reality TV speak, ‘‘madeover’’—into little darlings. In this essay, we explore the ways in which Supernanny accomplishes the redemption of the bad child through three easy steps. First, filtered through the conventions of makeover TV, badness is ‘‘converted’’ to unruliness; second, blame is passed from the children to the parents through an intricate structure built around five stages that establish Jo as our point of
Cultural Studies Review, Sep 1, 2012
In an editorial for Childhood, sociologist Chris Jenks argues that children are 'not ordinary peo... more In an editorial for Childhood, sociologist Chris Jenks argues that children are 'not ordinary people' but that they belong to 'a special order'. (6) Jenks is of course referring to the sacralisation of childhood. In contemporary Western culture VOLUME18 NUMBER2 SEP2012 354
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Papers by Rebecca Kambuta