ABSTRACT
For the past few years I have been thinking about postcolonial children’s literature from a comparative perspective, observing emergent patterns in literature for children from England, Australia, America, and Ireland. The comparative nature of the work consists in my matching these patterns against cultural development at particular times, and seeing certain similarities and differences. Thus the theoretical position underpinning this work is that texts are simultaneously the producers and the product of their culture and time. If we accept this position, then we must shed the notion that writing for children is “innocent” and take instead the position adopted by John Stephens (Language, 1992) that all literature for children is, in some way, ideologically driven.
