Cirrus@Austlit

'Through a comparison of Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand texts published between 1840 and 1940, From Colonial to Modern develops a new history of colonial girlhoods revealing how girlhood in each of these emerging nations reflects a unique political, social, and cultural context.

'Print culture was central to the definition, and redefinition, of colonial girlhood during this period of rapid change. Models of girlhood are shared between settler colonies and contain many similar attitudes towards family, the natural world, education, employment, modernity, and race, yet, as the authors argue, these texts also reveal different attitudes that emerged out of distinct colonial experiences. Unlike the imperial model representing the British ideal, the transnational girl is an adaptation of British imperial femininity and holds, for example, a unique perception of Indigenous culture and imperialism. Drawing on fiction, girls’ magazines, and school magazine, the authors shine a light on neglected corners of the literary histories of these three nations and strengthen our knowledge of femininity in white settler colonies.'  (Publication summary)

Drawing attention to the pedagogical function of children's literature, Pearce's examination of Ethel Turner's Seven Little Australians considers how this text in particular, 'constructs national identity and how gender plays a crucial role in the mythologising process' (11). Pearce outlines the historical and literary context of the 1890's by referring to Frank L. Baum's The Wizard of Oz (American) and Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows (English), as having the power to transmit 'myth-like messages about national identity' (10). She includes a brief synopsis of E L Haverfield's Queensland Cousins as an example of the predominance of British social (class) and moral values in children's literature at the time, which frames her reading of Turner's novel as distinctly Australian in its nationalist/patriotic discourse. However, Pearce concludes that while initially Seven Little Australians appears different from other colonial children's novels, essentially it maintains and perpetuates similar gender, race and class hierarchies to those of its counterparts. She contends that fundamentally, the narrative's representation of gender reinforces patriachal dominance and hegemonic masculinity and that the novels 'myth-making centres it very much in the misogynistic literary world of its time. In the end, female characters, like their creators, are put back firmly into their place' (16).