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Jane McGennisken's essay looks at mythologies of Australian childhood identity and practices of 'nation-building' as evidenced in some of the stories included in the First and Second Books of the Victorian and Tasmanian Readers. First published in 1928, eight books make up the collection of fiction and non-fiction stories that became the standard reading/literacy materials used to teach English up until the 1950s.
McGennisken argues that the texts construct a particular image of the Australian child which becomes 'the central element around which ideals of Australia and Australian nationhood are constructed' (5). She claims that in both the Tasmanian and Victorian readers, 'themes of national growth negotiate bwteen innocence and knowingness, informed by the figure of the [idealized] child, selective memories and collective imagining' (5). After analysing a number of stories in detail, McGennisken concludes that the representation of children that populates the stories in the Readers serve to reinforce notions of an ideal, uniquely Australian child' that is 'inevitably a child of the bush' (10).
According to McGennisken, 'themes of national growth in the Readers' work effectively to 'displace Aboriginal Australians and their claim to the country 'with a new generation of 'natives' whose presence will endure the nations' continuing development and its white national identity' (10). In this sense, the reader's functioned within educational institutions as prescribed material that looked to 'shape future Australian citizens through the ideological production of children by text' (11).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
- The Youngster 1911 single work prose
- A Brave Australian Girl 1911 single work prose
- An Adventure with the Blacks 1914 extract autobiography prose
- Pretty Dick 1869 single work short story
- The Old Bush School 1927 extract autobiography
- Sunrise in the Blue Mountains 1929 extract novel
- Seven Little Australians 1894 single work children's fiction
- Victorian Readers 1928-1930 series - publisher anthology