Dr Seuss's (Avant Garde Language.)

Dr Seuss also have avant-garde attitude towards language. For him languages do not have rules, language is a world that needs to be exploring, or expended. In his book “On Beyond Zebra!” Dr Seuss imagines a whole new alphabet that beyond Z, such as ‘YUZZ, ZATZ, FUDDLE’ and ‘FLUNN.’ “Suess literally goes after language itself – going beyond portmanteau words to give us portmanteau letters.” Says Pilip Nel. (Mason, 2004)

Dr Seuss also provided a chance to question the linguistic structures of adults and society. For example, in the book there is a page that is ‘B is for Viking’. It is a joke for children who can read and recognized that B is for ‘Beaver’, though it is wearing Viking Helmet. But it reminded people that the similar pronunciation of alphabet ‘B’ and ‘V’ and the different sounds and shapes. This book also can embodies with the definition of literary nonsense as presenting ‘an unresolved tension […] between presence and absence of meaning’ by Wim Tigges (Druker, Kummerling-Meibauer, n.d. p270) To create the tension o the alphabet, Dr Seuss tried to challenge the statement of writing language. “As Foucault argued, children become imbricated in systems of knowledge as they learn language, then books such as these may provide, at the very moment of language acquisition, and occasion to challenge knowledge.” (Druker, Kummerling-Meibauer, n.d. p270)

Reference:

Mason,I.G. (2004) The rise of Seussim. [online] Available at: http://www3.sympatico.ca/ian.g.mason/Seuss.htm [Accessed: 20 July 2016]

Druker, E, Kümmerling-Meibauer, B. (2015) Chilren’s Literature and the Avant-Garde. [online] Available at https://books.google.com.my/books?id=TlwwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=how+avant+garde+influence+children+book&source=bl&ots=yxCj9pIqD2&sig=dOxcCH8JyqZeUS5qLh2sVAItiYs&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=foucault&f=false  [Accessed: 6 August 2016]