Smashing Birds in the Wilderness: British Racial and Cultural Integration from Insider and Outsider Perspectives

Authors

  • Karen Sands-O'Connor

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2003vol13no3art1285

Keywords:

British multiculturalism, ethnicity in fiction, racial difference, cultural difference

Abstract

A review on a group of young adult novels thematising British multiculturalism as it plays out in relations between young characters of different ethnic origins is presented. The analysis of these texts suggests that in many cases racial and cultural difference is named through descriptions of characters, but not pursued through thematics or language, and thus issues of community relations and individual identities are represented through shallow and celebratory treatments, which contradict the complexities of British multiculturalism.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Ansell, Amy Elizabeth (1997) New Right, New Racism: Race and Reaction in the United States and Britain. New York, New York University Press.

Anwar, Muhammed (1995) ‘”New Commonwealth” Migration to the UK’, in Cohen, Robin (ed) The Cambridge Survey of World Migration. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, pp. 274-278.

Barker, Keith (1992) Gillian Cross. Swindon, England, School Library Association.

Blackman, Malorie (2001) Noughts and Crosses. London, Doubleday.

Blackman, Malorie (2003) An Eye for an Eye. London, Doubleday.

Blair, Tony (2003) ‘Prime Minister’s Foreword.’ Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market. London, Cabinet Report.

‘BNP thugs triumph in the local elections.’

International Express 6 May 2003, p.2.

Browne, Anthony (2003) ‘Ethnic minorities spread out from cities to suburbs’, The Times 4 August, p. 6

Christopher, John (1968) The Pool of Fire. New York, Collier.

Cooper, Susan (1984) The Dark is Rising sequence. London, Puffin.

Cross, Gillian (1981) Save Our School. London, Mammoth.

Cross, Gillian (1983) The Mintyglo Kid. London, Mammoth.

Cross, Gillian (1986) Swimathon! London, Methuen.

Cross, Gillian (1991) Gobbo the Great. London, Mammoth.

Cross, Gillian (1991) ‘Twenty things I don’t believe about children’s books’, School Librarian 39, 2: 44‐46.

Ernest, Kate Elizabeth (1993) Hope Leaves Jamaica. London, Methuen.

Ernest, Kate Elizabeth (1995) Birds in the Wilderness. London, Methuen.

Gavin, Jamila (1997) Out of India. London, Hodder.

Glass, Ruth (1961) London’s Newcomers: The West Indian Migrants. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press.

Griffin, Nick (2002) International Express, 6 May, p.2.

Hancock, Susan with Pat Pinsent and Ishtla Singh (1999) Young People’s Reading at the End of the Century: Focus on Ethnic Minority Pupils. London, British Library Board.

Hollindale, Peter (1995) ‘The adolescent novel of ideas’, Children’s Literature in Education 26, 1: 83-95.

Home Office Report (2001) Building Cohesive Communities: A Report of the Ministerial

Group on Public Order and Community Cohesion. London, Home Office.

Kay, Diana (1995) ‘The resettlement of displaced persons in Europe, 1946‐1951’, in Cohen, Robin (ed) The Cambridge Survey of World Migration. Cambridge, England, Cambridge University Press, pp. 154-158.

‘Kicked to death in front of shoppers’ (2003) International Express, Tuesday 1 July, p. 5

Kushnick, Louis (1971) ‘British anti‐ discrimination legislation’, in Simon Abbott (ed) The Prevention of Racial Discrimination in Britain. London, Oxford University Press, pp. 233-268.

Lively, Penelope (1974) The House in Norham Gardens. London, Heinemann.

Mackay, Sophie (2001) ‘Itinerant identities: Migration, displacement and adolescence’, in The Big Issues: Representations of Socially Marginalized Groups and Individuals in Children’s Literature, Past and Present. London, National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature, pp. 64‐72.

MacPherson, Sir William of Cluny (1999) The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry. Advised by Tom Cook, the Right Reverend John Sentamu and Dr. Richard Stone. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Command of Her Majesty.

Patterson, Sheila (1969) Immigration and Race Relations in Britain, 1960-1967. London, Oxford University Press.

Powell, Enoch. (1968) ‘River of Blood Speech’. Speech made to the British Parliament, April. The Sterling Times. http://www.sterlingtimes. org/text_rivers_of_blood.htm

Proctor, James (ed) (2000) Writing Black Britain 1948-1998: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Manchester, England, Manchester University Press.

Reynolds, Kimberley (1998) ‘Publishing practices and the practicalities of publishing’, in Reynolds, Kimberley and Tucker, Nicholas (eds) Children’s Book Publishing in Britain Since 1945. London, Scolar.

Sands‐O’Connor, Karen (2001) ‘Why are people different?: Multiracial families in picture books and the dialogue of difference’, The Lion and the Unicorn 25, 3: 412‐426.

Shyllon, Folarin (1992) ‘The Black presence

and experience in Britain: An analytical overview’, in Jagdish S. Gundara and Ian Duffield (eds) Essays on the History of Blacks in Britain: From Roman Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Aldershot, England, Avebury, pp. 202‐224.

Swindells, Robert (1997) Smash! London, Puffin.

White, Paul (1995) ‘Geography, literature and migration’, in R. King, J. Cornell and Paul White (eds) Writing Across Worlds: Literature and Migration. London, Routledge.

Young Writers (2003) ‘Robert Swindells’. www. mystworld.com/youngwriter.

Downloads

Published

2003-12-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Smashing Birds in the Wilderness: British Racial and Cultural Integration from Insider and Outsider Perspectives” (2003) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 13(3), pp. 43–50. doi:10.21153/pecl2003vol13no3art1285.

Similar Articles

121-130 of 145

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.