Creating the National Mosaic: Multiculturalism in Canadian Children’s Literature from 1950 to 1994The Canadian Multicultural Mosaic has long been recognized as an – if not the – outstanding characteristic of the Canadian nation at home and abroad. It has, further, come to be regarded as a model worldwide of a well-functioning culturally diverse society. This first book-length study of Canadian multicultural children’s literature sets out to explore how literature for the young has contributed to the creation of the country’s multicultural discourse as well as to the construction of its national identity. In this context, children’s literature possesses particular significance, as juvenile literature by nature serves an educational purpose which extends to forming and informing the next generation of a country’s citizens. In order to achieve a deeper understanding of the complex structures at work, not only the fictional works themselves but also Canada’s policy with regard to children’s culture and literature have been examined. In order to provide an optimally comprehensive picture, chapters include, among other aspects, information on public library services for immigrant children, on Canadian research collections specializing in children’s literature, on Canadian publishing for children, and on promotional activities. The works of fiction examined cover the period from 1950 to 1994 – thus illustrating the development of the nation’s multicultural discourse – and include various Canadian regions as well as protagonists belonging to different ethnic groups. While the approach is interdisciplinary, the novels discussed are above all read against the tenets of Canadian multiculturalism as manifested in such core documents as Prime Minister Trudeau’s 1971 parliamentary declaration and the 1988 Canadian Multiculturalism Act. The chief objective of the present study is to understand the interdependence between ideology, children’s literature, and the creation of a national discourse. |
Contents
1 | |
2 The Canadian Situation | 27 |
3 Canadian Cultural Policy with Regard to Childrens Culture and Literature | 58 |
4 The Immigrant Experience as Depicted in AngloCanadian Youth Fiction 19501994 | 155 |
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Creating the National Mosaic: Multiculturalism in Canadian Children's ... Miriam Verena Richter No preview available - 2011 |
Creating the National Mosaic: Multiculturalism in Canadian Children’s ... Miriam Verena Richter No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
Anglo-Canadian Anna Anna’s aspects Award background Bells on Finland Book Week Cana Canada Canadian books Canadian Children’s Book Canadian children’s literature Canadian culture Canadian Library Association Canadian Literature Canadian multicultural children’s Canadian national identity Canadian publishing Canadian society characters child Children’s Book Centre children’s librarians Chinese Chinese-Canadians Christmas collective memory Cook’s country’s dian Donna Duncan elements Elin Elin’s emphasis English Finland Street Finnish German Globe & Mail Grescoe heritage Hughes’s immigrants Jean Little Kap–Sung Ferris Kim’s Kwok Kwok’s language literary Little Magic Fiddler Little’s Lyn Cook Fonds McGrath Monica Hughes multicul multicultural children’s literature narrative national identity-formation novel Ontario Osborne Collection Paul Yee political presented protagonists Publishing for Children reading reflects regard ren’s Reviews role Saltman Service to Children significant skating Soldens story Sudbury tion Toronto Public Library traditions Trudeau’s tural Ukrainian underlines visible minorities writing Yee’s young readers youth fiction