AustLit

Scutter canvasses over 20 Australian children's and young adult novels, some in more detail than others, with a view to examining their representation of the 'pastoral'. While drawing attention to the changing significance of how the pastoral is portrayed, Scutter points out that the fundamental paradigm of the pastoral continues to depend upon the dichotomy, or contrast between the city and country (23). Scutter believes that 'the future locus of the pastoral' lies in 'the continued exploration of what is perceived to be other in our lives' (36) and sees the genre as moving in two distinct directions: 'towards the otherness that is within the individual psyche' and 'towards a more expansive otherness', one which takes the pastoral out of the 'secret garden or hidden valley into the wider world' (36).