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y separately published work icon The Inheritors single work   novel   young adult   science fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 1988... 1988 The Inheritors
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Twenty-five years after a nuclear war, a community of survivors lives on beneath a protective dome. Sixteen-year-old Claudia and her friends have grown up in a ultilitarian society, guided strictly by a protective ideology. When they meet the subversive Davina, they begin to question their society's rigidity and thought control and Claudia is torn between the old world and the new.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

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Works about this Work

The Perfect Place to Set a Novel about the End of the World? Trends in Australian Post-Nuclear Fiction for Young Adults Elizabeth Braithwaite , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 53 no. 2 2015; (p. 22-29) '"Australia has a fascinating yet contradictory nuclear history," writes Jeffrey Lantis, and this ambiguity can be seen in the post-nuclear young adult fiction produced in that country. British, American and German speculative fiction for young readers set after nuclear disaster tends to suggest reasons for the disaster, and by implication, to position readers towards acting to stop the disaster happening in the real world. By contrast, Australian writers of both fantasy and speculative fiction tend to be less concerned with the cause of the disaster than with how the nuclear apocalypse can be used to explore a range of cultural issues which may appear to have little or nothing to do with nuclear disaster. Working with the notion of apocalypse as both revelation and, more popularly, as a violent "end event" (Curtis), this paper explores why young adult post-nuclear fiction produced in Australia tends to be different from that produced in Britain, the USA and Germany, and demonstrates how the nuclear disaster is used in a selection of Australian young adult post-disaster fiction to address cultural issues, particularly those dealing with Australia's Indigenous population, and with the contemporary treatment of refugees.' (Publication summary)
Post-Disaster Fiction for Young Adults : Some Trends and Variations Elizabeth Braithwaite , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 20 no. 1 2010; (p. 5-19) 'Taking as its central question: 'What narrative functions does the disaster in young adult postdisaster fiction have?', this paper explores how the genre is utilised to make comment on a range of issues, and argues that there are three connected sub-genres within young adult post-disaster fiction, with the disaster having a different function in each, and the nature of the comments made by each of these sub-genres tending also to be different.
Stephens considers that: 'The main distinguishing feature of the genre is that its texts are set in a fantasy future which exists some time after the world we know has been destroyed by a cataclysmic disaster, usually caused by human actions' (1992, p.126).
This paper broadens this definition to include texts in which the disaster actually happens but in which the focus is on life after the disaster. It understands fantasy to include speculative fiction which seeks to portray pre-disaster life as similar to the implied young adult reader's, as well as works of high fantasy in which the disaster has made Earth into a kind of secondary world (see Sands 1998, p.232), and focuses on novels in which the disaster has clearly been caused by humans in some way' (Authors abstract).
Schools of the Future : Analysing the Present Elizabeth Braithwaite , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , August vol. 11 no. 2 2001; (p. 36-44)

In this analysis, Elizabeth Braithwaite looks at four novels which construct a futuristic images of school life and education, including The Inheritors by Jill Dobson (Dobson was born in England but came to live in Australia in 1972). She identifies three consistent themes regarding notions of truth, the power of language and communication and the negative effects of trying to fit into society and examines them under the headings of 'the function of schools in futuristic societies', the importance of school as 'place', representations of teachers in futuristic texts and how representations of futuristic schools comment on the reader's present (p.36). Braithwaite claims that despite the differences between the four texts they have one common factor and that is '...their main aim is still socialisation' and furthermore, the reader is positioned to accept that '...young people must take responsibility for their own lives and be prepared to take risks to find out what truth means for them' (pp.42-43).
Untitled Lynne Babbage , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 4 no. 3 1989; (p. 35)
— Review of The Inheritors Jill Dobson , 1988 single work novel
Speculative Fiction for Australian Children Ann L. Grieve , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 108 1989; (p. 22-25)
Untitled Lynne Babbage , 1989 single work review
— Appears in: Magpies : Talking About Books for Children , July vol. 4 no. 3 1989; (p. 35)
— Review of The Inheritors Jill Dobson , 1988 single work novel
Kids' Books for Christmas Jo Goodman , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , December no. 107 1988; (p. 26-28)
— Review of Drac and the Gremlin Allan Baillie , 1988 single work picture book ; Regina's Impossible Dream Judith Worthy , 1988 single work children's fiction ; Bill Barbara Giles , 1988 single work children's fiction ; The Best-Kept Secret Emily Rodda , 1988 single work children's fiction ; Answers to Brut Gillian Rubinstein , 1988 single work children's fiction ; The Inheritors Jill Dobson , 1988 single work novel ; Baily's Bones Victor Kelleher , 1988 single work novel ; Beyond the Labyrinth Gillian Rubinstein , 1988 single work novel
Untitled Judith James , 1988 single work review
— Appears in: Reading Time : The Journal of the Children's Book Council of Australia , vol. 32 no. 4 1988; (p. 44)
— Review of The Inheritors Jill Dobson , 1988 single work novel
Schools of the Future : Analysing the Present Elizabeth Braithwaite , 2001 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , August vol. 11 no. 2 2001; (p. 36-44)

In this analysis, Elizabeth Braithwaite looks at four novels which construct a futuristic images of school life and education, including The Inheritors by Jill Dobson (Dobson was born in England but came to live in Australia in 1972). She identifies three consistent themes regarding notions of truth, the power of language and communication and the negative effects of trying to fit into society and examines them under the headings of 'the function of schools in futuristic societies', the importance of school as 'place', representations of teachers in futuristic texts and how representations of futuristic schools comment on the reader's present (p.36). Braithwaite claims that despite the differences between the four texts they have one common factor and that is '...their main aim is still socialisation' and furthermore, the reader is positioned to accept that '...young people must take responsibility for their own lives and be prepared to take risks to find out what truth means for them' (pp.42-43).
Post-Disaster Fiction for Young Adults : Some Trends and Variations Elizabeth Braithwaite , 2010 single work criticism
— Appears in: Papers : Explorations into Children's Literature , vol. 20 no. 1 2010; (p. 5-19) 'Taking as its central question: 'What narrative functions does the disaster in young adult postdisaster fiction have?', this paper explores how the genre is utilised to make comment on a range of issues, and argues that there are three connected sub-genres within young adult post-disaster fiction, with the disaster having a different function in each, and the nature of the comments made by each of these sub-genres tending also to be different.
Stephens considers that: 'The main distinguishing feature of the genre is that its texts are set in a fantasy future which exists some time after the world we know has been destroyed by a cataclysmic disaster, usually caused by human actions' (1992, p.126).
This paper broadens this definition to include texts in which the disaster actually happens but in which the focus is on life after the disaster. It understands fantasy to include speculative fiction which seeks to portray pre-disaster life as similar to the implied young adult reader's, as well as works of high fantasy in which the disaster has made Earth into a kind of secondary world (see Sands 1998, p.232), and focuses on novels in which the disaster has clearly been caused by humans in some way' (Authors abstract).
Speculative Fiction for Australian Children Ann L. Grieve , 1989 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , March no. 108 1989; (p. 22-25)
The Perfect Place to Set a Novel about the End of the World? Trends in Australian Post-Nuclear Fiction for Young Adults Elizabeth Braithwaite , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: Bookbird , vol. 53 no. 2 2015; (p. 22-29) '"Australia has a fascinating yet contradictory nuclear history," writes Jeffrey Lantis, and this ambiguity can be seen in the post-nuclear young adult fiction produced in that country. British, American and German speculative fiction for young readers set after nuclear disaster tends to suggest reasons for the disaster, and by implication, to position readers towards acting to stop the disaster happening in the real world. By contrast, Australian writers of both fantasy and speculative fiction tend to be less concerned with the cause of the disaster than with how the nuclear apocalypse can be used to explore a range of cultural issues which may appear to have little or nothing to do with nuclear disaster. Working with the notion of apocalypse as both revelation and, more popularly, as a violent "end event" (Curtis), this paper explores why young adult post-nuclear fiction produced in Australia tends to be different from that produced in Britain, the USA and Germany, and demonstrates how the nuclear disaster is used in a selection of Australian young adult post-disaster fiction to address cultural issues, particularly those dealing with Australia's Indigenous population, and with the contemporary treatment of refugees.' (Publication summary)
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Last amended 1 Mar 2024 13:18:16
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