Literatuur Zonder Leeftijd. Jaargang 21

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Paul Biegel as a Crossover Author
Sandra L. Beckett

Van Biegels boeken zijn vertalingen verschenen, onder meer in het Engels. Daarvan is een aantal ook in Noord-Amerika op de markt gebracht. Te weinig, vindt onderzoekster Sandra L. Beckett. De rode prinses, Nachtverhaal en De soldatenmaker kregen (tot nu toe) geen Engelse vertaling, net zo min als Wie je droomt ben je zelf, een bewerking van het verhaal van Roodkapje. In haar bijdrage gaat ze nader in op deze bewerking.

The popular children's author Paul Biegel is a household name in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, the prize-winning Dutch author is not as well-known in English-speaking countries as he deserves to be. He is certainly no exception in this regard. Many important children's authors whose works are bestsellers in their own country, and often in many other countries as well, remain virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. All too often works by award-winning mainstream authors never even make it into an English translation. Even if works have the good fortune to be translated, their circulation in North American and British markets is generally quite limited in comparison with sales in the country of origin or in other European countries. Books that are translated seldom stay in print for very long. The vast majority of translations are never reprinted. Paul Biegel's fate in the English-speaking world has been somewhat more favorable than that of many foreign children's authors. More than twenty of Biegel's books have been translated, which is quite a significant achievement in light of the general lack of translations into English. However, the majority of the translations have appeared only in Britain. Biegel's works are not familiar to the majority of North American readers.

Biegel's first title to appear in English, five years after its publication in the Netherlands, was Het sleutelkruid, his award-winning story in the tradition of the Arabian Nights. The author himself co-translated the work, as he would also do for the next two books to appear in English. The King of the Copper Mountains (Het sleutelkruid) was published by the English publisher J.M. Dent & Sons in 1969. The same year, it was also published in the United States by Franklin Watts^1., bringing the author to the attention of the American public. The King of the Copper Mountains was to be Biegel's most successful book in the

1. Paul Biegel told me during an interview on 4 April 2000 that it was the American publisher who came up with the title The King of the Copper Mountains, a title that the author felt was particularly good.

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English-language market. It is perhaps no coincidence that it is a book with crossover appeal. When we discussed the audience of his works during a lengthy interview in 2000, Biegel admitted that he did not have a particular audience in mind when he wrote the stories that would become Het sleutelkruid.^2. The King of the Copper Mountains was one of the few works to be reissued in English, but even this work, undoubtedly his best-known, has not been in print for thirty years, the last edition having appeared in 1977. Hence very few English-speaking children today encounter works by the Dutch author.

Many of Biegel's books that appeared in English, particularly in the earlier years, were published by Dent^3.. When so many of Biegel's titles appeared in Britain, it is surprising that there was such a lack of interest on the part of American publishers. Since 1984, none of Biegel's books have been translated into English. During our conversation, the author expressed his regret that none of his later books had appeared in English. He mentioned in particular De rode prinses, Nachtverhaal, and De soldatenmaker, works for which the author seemed to have a marked predilection.^4.

One of Biegel's books that has never been published in English is Wie je droomt ben je zelf, a retelling of the fairy tale ‘Roodkapje’. This fascinating story was brought to my attention by a Dutch colleague when I was researching a book on contemporary retellings of the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. The number, diversity, and richness of the retellings of this particularly popular tale provide a unique opportunity to introduce important international authors to English-speaking readers. Like Biegel's retelling, the majority of the texts collected for the study had never been translated into English. Biegel's book was not included in Recycling Red Riding Hood, published in 2002, because I decided to discuss it in a second, forthcoming book devoted to retellings of the tale for readers of all ages. Biegel's retelling of the famous tale is a crossover work that appeals to young and old alike. Initially, my second book on ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ was to have included translations of fifteen of the most original retellings examined, including Biegel's, but it is now my hope that these will appear in a separate anthology.^5. In 2005, Biegel was kind enough to read the translation of

2. Interview with Biegel, 4 April 2000.

3. Look for a list of translation of Biegel's books in: Appendix

4. Interview with Biegel, 4 April 2000.

5. The book, provisionally titled Revisioning Little Red Riding Hood for All Ages, will be published by Wayne State University Press. Chapter four, ‘The Wolf Within’, includes a much more detailed examination of Biegel's Wie je droomt ben je zelf.

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Wie je droomt ben je zelf (‘You Are Who You Dream About’), and make suggestions. This gave us a further opportunity to discuss the work at length.

Wie je droomt ben je zelf was the result of a commission which Biegel received in 1977 to write a story for the ‘Kinderboekenweekgeschenk’. During our conversation in 2000 and in subsequent correspondence, the author discussed the genesis of the unique book. When a historical suspense was turned down, Biegel decided to write a story that had been in the back of his mind for a very long time, a rewriting of the tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ from the point of view of the different characters, ‘the grandmother, the wolf, the girl, and the hunter, one after the other’.^6. Like Angela Carter and a number of other authors who have engaged in the retelling of fairy tales, Biegel had previously translated classic tales. His translation into Dutch of the Grimms' Die Kinder- und Hausmärchen, done with two other translators, appeared in 1970. The author could not remember if he had been the one to do the translation of the tale ‘Rotkäppchen’.^7. It is the Grimms' version of the classic tale that provides the hypotext to Biegel's innovative retelling. Ten years earlier, the author had already offered a retelling of the tale ‘De rattenvanger van Hamelen’. In fact, fairy tales play an important role in all of Biegel's works. He often uses the characters, themes, and motifs of fairy tales to address the universal problems and aspirations of the human condition.

According to the author, it was his idea to write an explanatory preface to his retelling of the fairy tale.^8. In a simple manner accessible to children, Biegel explains the theory of psychoanalysts like Bruno Bettelheim: like dreams, fairy tales use symbols to express fears and desires that have been repressed into the unconscious, and therefore reveal much about our innermost selves. The title of the preface, ‘Ben jij het zelf’, like the title of the story itself, highlights the theme of identity. Readers of all ages are expected to make the same journey into their inner selves as the characters. There they too may discover a wolf. The symbolism of the wolf in the story is explained to readers in very explicit terms: ‘De wolf waar je zo bang voor bent, waar je tegen vecht, waar je voor vlucht, dat is niet een wolf in het bos. Het is iets uit je eigen binnenste, verkleed als wolf’.^9. One cannot help but regret that the author felt it necessary to include the somewhat didactic paratext rather than leaving the interpretation to the readers themselves.

6. Letter from Paul Biegel, 28 December 2002.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Paul Biegel, Wie je droomt ben je zelf, ill. Carl Hollander. Amsterdam, CPNB (Commissie voor de Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek or Committee for the Collective Promotion of Dutch Books); Uitg. Mij. Holland Uitgeversmaatschappij Holland (now Uitgeverij Holland), 1977.

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In spite of the elucidative preface, Biegel was convinced that the text is far too difficult for children. In the author's view, the book did not specifically target his young audience, as it should have. With unwarranted self-criticism, he called Wie je droomt ben je zelf a ‘big mistake’, at least with regard to the purpose for which it was commissioned.^10. However, the book's success seems to be indicated by the fact that, after thousands of copies had been given away in 1977, it was reprinted in 1990. The author's books are often quite challenging and he admits to being very much in favour of telling difficult stories to children.^11. His narratives characteristically address serious, even complex,

10. Interview with Biegel, 4 April 2000.

11. Letter from Biegel, 28 December 2002.

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themes. Although he is very conscious of his young readership, Biegel never deliberately addresses himself to children. His highly original psychoanalytical interpretation of ‘Roodkapje’ may have been a give-away for Children's Book Week, but it is a crossover book that speaks to both children and adults.

Wie je droomt ben je zelf is a sophisticated, multi-layered retelling that offers levels for readers of all ages. Difficult themes, such as death, identity, and the subconscious, are dealt with in a manner that is accessible for young readers, while providing substantial matter for reflection for adults as well. In addition to sophisticated themes, the work contains complex narrative techniques. While much of the intertextual play can be decoded by young readers, some of the more subtle and ironic allusions will only be appreciated by adults. Polyfocalization allows the author to explore the different voices in the classic tale. The story is focalized in turn through the grandmother, Little Red Cap, the wolf, the hunter, and even the mother. Adult readers will be particularly drawn to this plural self-reflexivity that revitalizes an old story.

Characters, motifs, and events of the classic tale are faithfully retained, but Biegel casts them in a highly original light. The traditional dialogue of the encounter scene is humorously reworked to address the theme of identity and self-knowledge. Biegel's psychoanalytical and philosophical take on the familiar tale can be appreciated by readers of all ages. The author's playful sense of humour and imaginative use of language is particularly evident during the meeting in the woods, when the wolf tries to convince the little girl that he is a bewitched prince and that she is perhaps really a disguised wolf. The second chapter of the book is devoted to the disturbing dreams of the three characters as they all snore in the grandmother's down-filled bed. At the end of the dream sequences, each of the three main characters attains new self-knowledge and wisdom. Little Red Cap has recognized and accepted the wolf inside the little girl.

When the jury awarded Biegel the Staatsprijs for literature for children and young adults for his complete works in 1973, they stated that the author's ‘fantasies are rooted in common human problems, instincts and emotions - common enough to reach every child’.^12. When given the opportunity by publishers, Biegel's books are able to enchant North American children as much as Dutch children. But they are also ‘common enough’ to reach every adult. The award jury also acknowledged that fact when they stated that ‘young and old recognize themselves in the mirror that Paul Biegel holds up to them’.^13. This is also

12. ‘Report of the Jury Awarding the State Prize for Children's and Young People's Literature for 1973’, translated by Patricia Crampton, in The Junior Bookshelf 39, no. 1, February 1975, blz. 9.

13. Ibid.

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true for Wie je droomt ben je zelf, which is a highly original retelling that uses the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ to discuss psychoanalytical and philosophical questions concerning life, death, identity, and fear. It demonstrates clearly the author's ability to appeal to a crossover audience of all ages.