This book demonstrates how contemporary children's texts draw on utopian and dystopian tropes in their projections of possible futures. The authors explore the ways in which children's texts respond to social change and global politics. The book argues that children's texts are crucially implicated in shaping the values of their readers.

'Every now and then a book comes along that changes a discipline: New World Orders in Contemporary Children's Literature steps out of the groove of debates in Children's Literature Studies and sets in motion a set of new ideas and areas for consideration. It draws attention to the way narrative fictions for children are implicated in shaping current thinking and aspirations for the future, and relates them to pressing issues and current political and philosophical debates. Crucially, this is an energising, optimistic and courageous book by four fine scholars; it will set new agendas for those who produce and study children's literature.' - Professor Kimberley Reynolds, Newcastle University, UK

'...a well modulated, coherent monograph which reveals the strengths of all the contributors. The care that has been taken in the editing phase to create the sense of a unified vantage point is worthy of praise in its own right.' - Lydia Kokkola, International Research Society for Children's Literature

Autorentext
CLARE BRADFORD is Professor of Literature at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. She works in children's literature, focusing on postcolonial theory and texts. Her 2001 book Reading Race won both the ChLA Book Award and also the IRSCL Award. Her most recent book is Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children's Literature.

ROBYN MCCALLUM is a Lecturer in English Literature at Macquarie University, Australia, where she works in children's literature, with a particular focus on adolescent fiction and visual media. Her book Ideologies of Identity in Adolescent Fiction received the IRSCL Honour book award in 2001. She is also co-author, with John Stephens, of Retelling Stories, Framing Culture.

KERRY MALLAN is Professor in Education at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Her resarch interests include all aspects of children's literature and film, with particular focus on gender and sexuality. Her book Youth Cultures: Texts, Images and Identities (co-edited with Sharyn Pearce) won the IRSCL Honour book award 2003.

JOHN STEPHENS is Professor in English at Macquarie University, Australia. He is the author of Language and Ideology in Children's Fiction (a ChLA Honour Book) and edited Ways of Being Male (an IRSCL Honour Book). His research deals with the impact of cultural forms on children's literature.

Inhalt
Acknowledgements A New World Order or a New Dark Age? Children's Texts, New World Orders and Transformative Possibilities Masters, Slaves and Entrepreneurs: Globalised Utopias and New World Order(ing)s The Lure of the Lost Paradise: Postcolonial Utopias Reweaving Nature and Culture: Reading Ecocritically 'Radiant with possibility': Communities and Utopianism Ties that Bind: Reconceptualising Home and Family The Struggle to be Human in a Posthuman World Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index