Deconstructing Delphinium: Violence and Flowers in Rousseau’s E´mile and Henke’s Chrysanthemum

This article is an attempt to contribute to the conversation about ‘‘go[ing] beyond all kinds of binary thinking’’ (Lenz Taguchi, Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: introducing an intra-active pedagogy, 2010, p. 50), especially the binary which positions ‘‘adults’’ and ‘‘children’’ as being powerful and powerless, respectively, in educational settings. It is also a personal reflection on ‘‘naming.’’ At the center of the reflection are two literary works, the picture book by Henkes, Chrysanthemum (1991), and the novel by Rousseau, E´mile, ou l’education (1762a). The central metaphor of E´mile—that of the developing child as organically unfolding, like a flower—is deconstructed by the plot involving two flower-named characters in Chrysanthemum. These characters are the protagonist, Chrysanthemum, and her music teacher, Delphinium Twinkle. Two acts of ‘‘naming’’ are considered: the literal act of naming a newborn baby and the abstract concept of ‘‘naming’’ [or labeling] a particular time in the life of a human being: ‘‘Childhood’’ (Cannella, Deconstructing early childhood education: social justice and revolution, 1997).