In this study of the relationship between children's
literature and Australian culture I make a close textual
analysis of the works of Ivan Southall, Eleanor Spence,
Colin Thiele and Patricia Wrightson. This analysis is
based on a framework of areas of culture as defined in
anthropological terms, and includes such categories as the
Environment, Social Organization, the Life Cycle, the
Family and World View. Each author's work is analysed
according to this framework. In a final section on each
author I draw together the themes and developments in each
author's writing and discuss the cultural insights they
provide. In these textual analyses the emphasis is on
identifying the culture which these authors reflect in the
twenty to twenty-five year period in which they have been
writing. I am also interested in identifying those
cultural values which the authors promote or attempt to
transmit to their readers. In the final chapter I
undertake a comparative analysis. First I identify the
areas of overlap or of greatest concern on which the four
authors focus. These I identify as the Environment, the
Family, Adolescence, Consumerism, the 'Other' Australians
and Religion. I then compare these areas of focus and the
attitudes and cultural values which the four authors
reflect and transmit in these areas, with generalizations
revealed in other interpretative analyses of Australian
culture, including those of Craig McGregor and
Ronald Conway. The result of this comparative analysis is
striking in terms of the significant aspects of Australian
culture which all the authors reflect. At the same time
they bring their own personal perspectives to bear on the
cultural values which they seek to transmit.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219282 |
| Date | January 1981 |
| Creators | Reeder, Stephanie Owen, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Stephanie Owen Reeder |
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