New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature

New World Orders demonstrates how contemporary children's texts draw on utopian and dystopian tropes in their projections of possible futures. In examining a diverse range of international children's literature and film produced between 1988 and 2006, the authors explore the ways in which children's texts respond to social change and global politics, giving shape to children's perceived anxieties and desires. The book argues that children's texts are crucially implicated in shaping the values of their readers.

About the Author(s)

By Clare Bradford, Robyn McCallum and Kerry Mallan

CLARE BRADFORD is Professor of Literary Studies at Deakin University, Australia

ROBYN MCCALLUM is a Lecturer in the Department of English, Macquarie University, Australia

KERRY MALLAN is a Professor in the School of Cultural & Language Studies in Education, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

JOHN STEPHENS is a Professor in the Department of English, Macquarie University, Australia

Table of Contents

Introduction: A new world order or a new dark age? * New dialogues: 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 * Nature versus culture: Reading ecocritically * 'Radiant with possibility': Communities and utopianism * Ties that bind: Reconceptualising home and family * 'On a darkling plain': Cities as utopian/dystopian sites * The struggle to be human in a posthuman world * Conclusion * Bibliography * Index * References * Index *