Discourses of Postcolonialism in Contemporary British Children's Literature

This book considers how contemporary British children’s books engage with some of the major cultural debates of recent years. A central assumption of this volume is that Britain’s imperial past continues to play a key role in its representations of race, identity, and history. In this conception, the insistent inclusion of questions relating to colonialism and power relations in recent children’s novels reveals significant tensions, or even contradictions, with regards to the fictional treatment of race relations and ethnicity. The texts analyzed portray ethnic minorities as complex, hybrid products of colonialism, global migrations, and the ideology of multiculturalism.