Tales of Empire: Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century Children\u27s Literature

Children\u27s literature often does not hold the same weight in the studies of a culture as its big brother, the novel. However, as children\u27s literature is written by adults, to convey information which is important for a child to learn in order to be a functioning member of that society, it can be analyzed in the same way novels are, to provide insight into the broad sweeping issues that concerned the adults of that era. Nineteenth-century British children\u27s literature in particular reveals the deep-seated preoccupation the British Empire had with its eastern colonies, and shows how England\u27s relationship to those colonies, particularly India, changed throughout the period. Beginning with the writing of Christina Rossetti\u27s The Goblin Market in 1859, touching upon the Alice stories of Lewis Carroll in 1865 and 1871, and finishing with Frances Hodgson Burnett\u27s The Secret Garden published in 1911, I show how these three works of children\u27s fiction mirror the changing attitudes of Britain in regard to her eastern colonies. The orientalism found in these stories is a nuanced orientalism that reflects the pressures of the moment and the changing tide of public opinion