Voices of the Other: Children's Literature and the Postcolonial Context (Children’s Literature and Culture 10)

317 Pages·1999·34.892 MB·English

by  Roderick McGillis

VOICES OF THE OTHER
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND CULTURE
VOLUME 10
GARLAND REFERENCE LIBRARY OF THE HUMANITIES
VOLUME 2126
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AND CULTURE
JACK ZIPES, SERIES EDITOR
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE RETELLING STORIES, FRAMING
COMES OF AGE CULTURES
Toward a New Aesthetic Traditional Story
by Maria Nikolajeva and Metanarratives in
Children's Literature
REDISCOVERIES IN by John Stephens and Robyn
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE McCallum
by Suzanne Rahn
THE CASE OF PETER RABBIT
REGENDERING THE Changing Conditions
SCHOOL STORY of Literafllre for Children
Sassy Sissies and by Margaret Mackey
Tattling Tomboys
by Beverly Lyon Clark LITTLE WOMEN AND
THE FEMINIST IMAGINATION
WHITE SUPREMACY IN Criticism, Controversy,
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE Personal Essays
Characterizations ofA frican edited by Janice M.
Americans, 1830-1900 Alberghene and Beverly Lyon
by Donnarae MacCann Clark
VOICES OF THE OTHER
Children's Literafllre and
the Postcolonial Context
edited by Roderick McGillis
V
OleES OF THE OTHER
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
AND THE POSTCOLONIAL
CONTEXT
EDITED BY
RODERICK McGILLIS
I~ ~~o~J~;~~;up
NEW YORK AND LONDON
Published in 2000 by Published in Great Britain by
Routledge Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group Taylor & Francis Group
270 Madison Ave, 2 Park Square,
New York NY 10016 Milton Park, Abingdon,
Oxon, OX14 4RN
© 2000 by Roderick McGillis
Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group
Transferred to Digital Printing 2008
International Standard Book Number-lO: 0-815-33284-X (Hardcover)
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-815-33284-8 (Hardcover)
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For Vic and Ruby
Your house shows the marks offriendship

Contents
General Editor's Forward ix
Preface xi
Contributors xv
Introduction: by Roderick McGillis xix
Section 1: Theory
o
Chapter I: Rethinking the Identity of Cultural
Otherness: The Discourse of Difference
as an Unfinished Project
ShaoboXie
o
Chapter 2: "We Are the World, We Are the Children":
The Semiotics of Seduction in International
Children's Relief Eff0l1s
Nancy Ellen Batty 17
o
Chapter 3: The View from the Center: British Empire
and Post-Empire Children's Literature
Peter Hullt and Karen Sands 39
o
Chapter 4: Continuity, Fissure, or Dysfunction:
From Settler Society to Multicultural Society
in Australian Fiction
John Stephens 55
o
Chapter 5: Text, Culture, and Postcolonial
Children's Literature: A Comparative
Perspective
Jean Webb 71
vii
viii Contents
Section 2: Colonialism
o
Chapter 6: Saved by the Word: Textuality and
Colonization in Nineteenth-Century
Australian Texts for Children
Clare Bradford 89
o
Chapter 7: Making Princesses, Re-making
A Little Princess
Mavis Reimer III
o
Chapter 8: Colonial Canada's Young Adult Short
Adventure Fiction: The Hunting Tale
Jean Stringam 135
o
Chapter 9: Lies My Children's Books Taught Me:
History Meets Popular Culture in
"The American Girls" Books
Daniel Hade 153
Section 3: Postcolonialism & Neocolonialism
Chapter 10: Bedtime Stories: Canadian Multiculturalism
and Children's Literature
Louise Saldanha 165
Chapter II: Multiculturalism in Canadian Children's
Books: The Embarrassments of History
Dieter Petzold 177
Chapter 12: "Initiation for the Nation": NgugI wa
Thiong' o's Writing for Children
Oliver Lovesey 193
Chapter 13: Wrestling with the Past: The Young Adult
Novels of Buchi Emecheta
Alida Allison 211
Chapter 14: "And the Celt Knew the Indian":
Knowingness, Postcolonialism,
Children's Literature
Roderick McGillis 223
Chapter 15: Reviving or Revising Helen Bannerman's
The StOl}' of Little Black Sambo:
Postcolonial Hero or Signifying Monkey?
Jan Susina 237
OAfterword: The Merits and Demerits of the Postcolonial
Approach to Writings in English
Victor J. Ramraj 253
Index 269
General Editor's Foreword
Dedicated to furthering original research in children's literature and cul
ture, the Children's Literature and Culture series includes monographs
on individual authors and illustrators, historical examinations of differ
ent periods, literary analyses of genres, and comparative studies on liter
ature and the mass media. The series is international in scope and is
intended to encourage innovative research in children's literature with a
focus on interdisciplinary methodology.
Children's literature and culture are understood in the broadest
sense of the term children to encompass the period of childhood up
through late adolescence. Owing to the fact that the notion of childhood
has changed so much since the origination of children's literature, this
Garland series is particularly concerned with transformations in chil
dren's culture and how they have affected the representation and social
ization of children. While the emphasis of the series is on children's
literature, all types of studies that deal with children's radio, film, televi
sion, and art are included'in an endeavor to grasp the aesthetics and val
ues of children's culture. Not only have there been momentous changes
in children's culture in the last fifty years, but there have been radical
shifts in the scholarship that deals with these changes. In this regard, the
goal of the Children's Literature and Culture series is to enhance re
search in this field and, at the same time, point to new directions that
bring together the best scholarly work throughout the world.
Jack Zipes
ix