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Notes
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Selection of papers first presented at the inaugural Conference of Australian Children's Literature Association for Research, held at the University of South Australia, 4-6 April 1997.
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Partial contents indexed.
Contents
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When Australia Calls: The English Immigrant in Australian Children's Literature,
single work
criticism
Pearce's article examines the types of messages that were being disseminated to readers about Australian identity in children's texts in the 1950's, during what she describes as a 'highly complex and interactive process of cultural negotiations regarding a definitive Australian literary tradition and a growing sense of 'Australianness' in wider society (7). Pearce is interested in how the American and British ideology of the time is incorporated into narratives about national identity and looks closely at the W.E Johns novel Biggles in Australia which she argues, 'verifies an image of Australia as deferential colonial offspring needing the manpower of the Mother Country to get it out of nasty scrapes' (7). Pearce reads Allan Aldous' novel The New Australians as indicative of the prevailing masculine ideology which underpins any representation of Australian identity and fundamentally reinforces patriarchal gender roles by connecting men and boys with an idealized British migrant past, while women and undesirable men are associated negatively with an Americanized future (11). Pearce concludes that novels for children were at this time, 'overwhelmingly nationalistic and assimilationist' and that essentially, '[t]he message emanating from children's books of this decade appears to be that real or true Australians are males living in the Bush' (11).
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The New Fringe Dwellers : The Problem of Ethnicity in Recent Australian Children's Picture Books,
single work
criticism
Kroll looks at several children's texts in an effort to investigate a number of questions pertinent to the issue of moving the representation of ethnic groups 'beyond the immigration experience in literature so that the ethnicity of non-Anglo characters is no longer the focus' (31). This includes clarifying the cultural norms against which such characters are pitted, investigating the significance of the landscape in defining nationality and finally, considering whether having more authors/illustrators of non-Anglo origin in the field would 'alter the representation of ethnic groups' (31). She concludes that 'the appearance of non-Anglo children or adults as picture book protagonists has not increased to a substantial degree in recent years' and while ethnic characters are 'visible', the lack of centrality given to migrant groups and individuals continues the process of marginalization, tokenism and stereotyping which continues to dominate representations of non-Anglo experiences in Australian picture books (38).
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Untitled
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 42 no. 3 1998; (p. 43)
— Review of Old Neighbours, New Visions 1997 anthology criticism
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Untitled
1998
single work
review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , August vol. 42 no. 3 1998; (p. 43)
— Review of Old Neighbours, New Visions 1997 anthology criticism