Editorial

Authors

  • Debra Dudek University of Wollongong, Australia
  • Wenche Ommundsen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2007vol17no2art1189

Keywords:

editorial

Abstract

Building cultural citizenship: Multiculturalism and children’s literature

In his influential book White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society (1998), Ghassan Hage compares different versions of multiculturalism using an example from a children’s book, The Stew that Grew by Michael and rhonda Gray. the book presents an allegory of Australian cultural diversity: the ‘eureka stew’ which features ingredients brought by all the ethnic groups that make up the Australian nation. According to Hage, it is an allegory fraught with ideological paradox: ‘far from celebrating cultural diversity – or rather, in the process of so doing,’ the book actually embodies ‘a White nation fantasy in which White Australians...enact...their capacity to manage this diversity.’ (p.119) He explains that although the stew is presented as the palatable blend of all the cultural influences which went into its making, it is not a mix where all cultures are equal: the Anglo character Blue is in charge of the cooking throughout; the ‘ethnics’ are reduced to the function of adding flavour.

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Author Biography

  • Debra Dudek, University of Wollongong, Australia
    Debra Dudek is a Lecturer in English Literatures and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Canadian-Australian Studies at the University of Wollongong. She has published internationally on Children’s Literature, Postcolonial Studies, and Comparative Literature. In her current research, she is analysing representations of activism in Children’s Literature.

References

Ang, Ien (2001) On Not Speaking Chinese: Living Between Asia and the West. London, Routledge.

Bantick, C. (2005) ‘Writing politics into children’s books’, The Canberra Times. 10 September: 10.

Dudek, Debra (2006) ‘Dogboys and lost things; or anchoring a floating signifier: race and critical multiculturalism’, Ariel: a Review of International English Literature, 37, 4: 1-20.

Gunew, Sneja (2004) Haunted Nations: The Colonial Dimensions of Multiculturalisms. London, Routledge.

Hage, Ghassan (1998) White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. Sydney, Pluto Press.

(2003) Against Paranoid Nationalism: Searching for Hope in a Paranoid Society. Sydney, Pluto Press.

Lopez, Mark (2000) The Origins of Multiculturalism in Australian Politics 1945-1975. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press.

Stratton, Jon (1998) Race Daze: Australia in Identity Crisis. Sydney, Pluto Press.

Werbner, Pnina and Tariq Modood (1997) Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multicultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-Racism. London and New Jersey, Zed Books.

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Published

2007-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Editorial” (2007) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 17(2), pp. 3–6. doi:10.21153/pecl2007vol17no2art1189.