“Who Shall Return us the Children?” Picturing Home(lessness) and Postcolonial Childhoods in Immigrant Children’s Literature

Abstract

How does literature for children portray homes lost and perhaps found? Does children’s literature liberate or subjugate with these representations? What kinds of perspectives do the written and visual representations in children’s narratives offer? How is the experience of subjugated childhoods represented in these narratives? How is the sense of self and sense of place, namely home, represented in both word and image? The literary representation of children is contingent upon preestablished notions of political formations and identity, namely the dynamics of the subjugated and subjugator. Employing theories from canonical critics in the field of postcolonial study, this paper looks at several children’s narratives to explore the value of children’s stories in representing home(lessness) from the perspective of child immigrants and refugees. It argues for the need to question whether these representations in children’s narratives subjugate or liberate, considering how children’s books can be seen as political acts. It argues that literature for children can be used as a tool of criticism to critique certain ideologies (and the existing social order and postcolonial ties). Considering the relationship between the individual and the state, it concludes by considering children’s narratives as a way of configuring and even overturning the notion of home(lessness) and the significant question of whether a return to the homeland is ever possible.

Keywords

• migration
• children literature
• transnationalism
• postcolonialism
• homeland

References

1. References are indicated in the article. References are indicated in the article.