ABSTRACT
The right to be included: that became a basic tenet of feminist theory. So feminist theory changed to become increasingly inclusive: the feminist studies of the 1970s grew into gender studies in the 1980s. In the 1990s another change is happening as gender studies become aligned with post-colonial and cultural studies. Critics like Gayatri Spivak and Tinh T.Minh-ha, recognising the similarities between political power plays and gender power plays, have helped feminist criticism shed its Eurocentric, middle-class look. For children’s literature critics, there is an increased awareness of the way primitives and children are frequently (t)roped together. In keeping with feminist agendas, this new theoretical line is changing both the readings and the text.
