Children in Postcolonial Literature

‘Postcolonial’ refers to peoples and places that were formerly subject to colonial occupation and is usually used with reference to modern European colonialism. Sometimes used with a hyphen, ‘postcolonial’ acknowledges both the historical transition of societies from subjugation to independence and the cultural and material power relations that remain instrumental in defining collective and individual identities and opportunities beyond the formal end of colonial rule, both in terms of material culture and symbolic representation.

This entry first briefly discusses the place of children in the field of postcolonial studies and then describe the place of children in colonialism. The rest of the entry briefly describes the relationship between the child and colonialism and then considers the representations of children and childhood that are most definitive of ...