New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature Utopian Transformations

by Bradford, Clare; Mallan, Kerry; Stephens, John; McCallum, Robyn

• ISBN13: 9780230308565
• ISBN10: 0230308562
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

This book, now in paperback, demonstrates how contemporary children's texts draw on utopian and dystopian tropes in their projections of possible futures, exploring ways in which children's texts respond to social change and global politics. The book argues that children's texts are crucially implicated in shaping the values of their readers.

Author Biography

Clare Bradford is professor of Literature at Deakin University, Australia. Her 2001 book, Reader Race, won both the ChLA Book Award and the IRSCL Award. She is a co-author of New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature (2008). Her most recent book is Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children's Literature (2007). Kerry Mallan is Professor in Educational at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her co-edited book Youth Cultures: Texts, Images and Identities is an IRSCL Honour Book (2003). She is a co-author of New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature (2008). Her most recent book is Gender Dilemmas in Children's Fiction (2009). John Stephens is Professor in English at Macquarie University, Australia. He is the author of Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction (a ChLA Honour Book) and edited Ways of Being Male (an IRSCL Honour Book). His research deals with the impact of Cultural forms on childrens's literature. Robyn McCallum is a Lecturer in English Literature at Macquarie University, Australia, where she works in Children's literature, with a particular focus on adolescent fiction and visual media. Her book Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction received the IRSCL Honour book award in 2001. She is also co-author, with John Stephens, of Retelling Stories, Framing Culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
A New World Order or a New Dark Age?
Children's Texts, New World Orders and Transformative Possibilities
Masters, Slaves and Entrepreneurs: Globalised Utopias and New World Order(ing)s
The Lure of the Lost Paradise: Postcolonial Utopias
Reweaving Nature and Culture: Reading Ecocritically
'Radiant with Possibility': Communities and Utopianism
Ties that Bind: Reconceptualising Home and Family
The Struggle to be Human in a Posthuman World
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index