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This thesis explores the representation of gendered, untamed, abject, carnivalesque and docile bodies in a selection of Australian children's books. Utilising a range of theoretical perspectives I interrogate some of the ideological imperatives that emerge from these texts and problematise the normalising discourses which they employ. Beginning with an introductory exposition on theorising the child's body, I then proceed to deploy Feminist theory in a discussion of the conservative gender roles offered in John Marsden's 'Secret Men's Business: Manhood: The Big Gig' and Margaret Clark's 'Secret Girls' Stuff'. Chapter Three combines postcolonial theory and historical analysis of the discourses that have surrounded wild children to consider Gary Crew's novel 'Angel's Gate'. Julia Kristeva's theory of the abject is used in Chapter Four to study Sonya Hartnett's 'Sleeping Dogs' and Margo Lanagan's 'Touching Earth Lightly'. Chapter Five employs Bakhtin's theory of the carnivalesque in an interpretation of Victor Kelleher's 'The Red King' and John Marsden's 'The Journey'. Finally, Chapter Six applies Foucault's 'Discipline and Punish', in conjunction with a exposition of docility and childhood, to a critical reading of three novels by John Marsden: 'So Much To Tell You', 'Letters From the Inside' and 'Checkers'. The result is a discourse on body-politics which identifies some of the conservative ideals that render bodies docile, desirable and disruptive within Australian children's literature. |
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