Table of Contents for Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Childrenâs Literature by Claire Bradford Introduction Part One âWhen Languages Collideâ: Resistance and Representation 1. Language, Resistance, and Subjectivity 2. Indigenous Texts and Publishers 3. White Imaginings 4. Telling the Past Part Two Place and Postcolonial Significations 5. Space, Time, Nation 6. Borders, Journeys, and Liminality 7. Politics and Place 8. Allegories of Place and Race Conclusion Notes Bibligraphy and References Index
Clare Bradford is a professor of literary studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, where she teaches and researches mainly childrenâs literature. Her 2001 book, Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Childrenâs Literature , won both the Childrenâs Literature Association Book Award and the IRSCL Award of the International Research Society for Childrenâs Literature. Clare Bradfordâs publications have appeared in Canadian Childrenâs Literature , Childrenâs Literature , The Lion and the Unicorn , Papers , and The Childrenâs Literature Association Quarterly .
``Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children's
Literature provides a significant contribution to the fields of
First Nations/Aboriginal studies and comparative Postcolonial
studies, as well as the development of theoretically grounded
postcolonial analyses of children's literature.'' -- Suzanne James
-- Canadian Literature, 200, Spring 2009, 200810
``Clare Bradford's newest book is groundbreaking, and its title,
Unsettling Narratives, hints at the complexity of the subject
matter and its multiple dimensions.... Bradford is...the first to
apply comparative literary techniques across the board to the
children's literature originating in these four countries [namely
Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States].... She does
an especially good job of pinpointing how indigenous stories become
subsumed by European paradigms when told by cultural outsiders no
matter how well-versed the authors may be in the cultures about
which they are writing.... [But] an infusion of new tools is needed
to take the discussion beyond authenticity of the texts themselves
and into the greater realm of how the texts represent stated and
unstated ideologies in America. These tools are what Bradford
offers in Unsettling Narratives. It is an ambitious book, grounded
in the theories of postcolonial studies and filled with examples of
close textual readings and analyses that are nuanced rather than
reductive. Although Bradford's intention it so examine how
children's texts represent indigenity, her examples provide models
for reading all children's texts by, about, or referencing cultures
marginalized in the United States. Her opening example of Lynne
Cheney's America: A Patriotic Primer alone is practically worth the
price of the book.'' -- Susan Stan, Central Michigan University --
Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 33, no. 2, Summer
2008, 200806
``Clare Bradford's Unsettling Narratives fully lives up to the
claim on the back cover that the volume will `open up an area of
scholarship and discussion ... relatively new to the field of
children's literature.' The volume is thorough, provocative, and
persuasive.... One of the biggest strengths of this text is the
breadth of material which is analyzed in close detail: Bradford
examines as many as fifteen texts in detail to a chapter, including
novels, picture books, and films, and this wealth of material not
only gives her argument a persuasive strength but also showcases
the rich material of postcolonial children's texts which have until
now been relatively neglected.... This volume is coherent,
thought-provoking, and well-written, moving beyond the conventional
and obvious analyses of race, identity, place, and language which
so often occur in the study of children's literature, to provide a
fresh insight and a provocative new perspective.'' -- Jennifer
Sattaur, Aberystwyth University -- International Research Society
for Children's Literature, July 2008, 200807
``By emphasizing the fact that texts produced by the Indigenous
must be read in accordance with their cultural and narrative
practices, Bradford frees up a breathing space for Indigenous texts
which are, otherwise, read according to the textual and critical
modes of dominant communities. Given the subject area of her work
and the theoretical tools that she is employing Bradford's book is
an intervention that is both timely and necessary.'' -- Anna
Kurian, University of Hyderabad, India -- Journal of Intercultural
Studies, Vol. 30, no. 2, May 2009, 200905
``In Unsettling Narratives, Clare Bradford deploys her wide-ranging
knowledge of postcolonial theory to explore the social and
political implications of a fascinating variety of texts for
children and young adults produced in Australia, Canada, New
Zealand and the U.S.A. With a passionate commitment to confronting
and moving beyond the conventional ideologies of race and space
that tend to constrain herself and others, and an insightful
awareness of subtleties and nuances, Bradford offers readings that
are fiercely intelligent, refreshingly honest, and--most
unsettlingly--very persuasive.'' -- Perry Nodelman, professor
emeritus of English, University of Winnipeg, author ofNot a Nickel
to Spare (2007) and, with Mavis Reimer, The Pleasures ofChildrens
Literature. -- 200704
``Provides an in-depth view of what children's and young adult
books tell readers about native populations, immigration, race
relationships, and the development of nations, and what they have
to say about the place of these Native peoples in today's
societies.... [D]efinitely...useful...for assuring the accurate
portrayal of indigenous cultures in the library and the classroom
by recognizing the political implications of these portrayals.'' --
Janet Hilbun, Texas Women's University -- School Library Journal,
February 1, 2008, 200802
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