Research Abstract |
In this research, I selected Anglo-Indian Children (English children who stayed in India under Raj) figured in different kind of writings such as adventure novels, stories in magazines, domestic novels and so on, and explored their transcultural formation, their experiences between homeland and the place where they grew up in the historical setting, in which the Great Britain had the hegemony over India They were, in a way, hung between the native culture and English culture, losing their cultural identity and their stories describe the process of reconstructing their own identities. As the actual examples, I take up Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden, Rumer Godden's River, and Mary Norton's The Borrowers, where Anglo-Indian children are featured. In addition, I refer to the now forgotten novels such as From Six to Sixteen, For the Sake of the Queen, "The Golden Silence" and so on, to consider their complicated intertexual relationship. As the modern examples, Ruby in the Smoke, and The Pattern of Roses to show the prevalence of the stereotypical devise of Anglo-Indian children in 20th Century. The former parodies its precedent works, the latter makes use of the typicality in a different topical setting. From. them I can see that the actual existence have changed into the stereotypical literary convention. This research also reveals that not only between different races, but also between genders, classes, and adult and children there are unequal power relationship working. From now on, I will further explore this theme, by reading other stories by Rumer Godden, M.M. Kay, and Paul Scott, and especially those works done by Indian writers such as Jamila Gavin and Rani who at last raise their voice to tell their own stories. For even in the 21th century, images of the Orientalized India still exists.
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