Novels about East Timor in English and Portuguese for children have been scarce. Despite a contemporary background of revisionist approaches to history, the nationalist focus of such material means that certain stories are handled rarely, even those that interpellate the nation in some way. This talk examines ways in which support for East Timor is underwritten in the few novels for children and young adults that deal with East Timor in English and Portuguese, concluding with a brief assessment of the extent to which they realize Herbert Kohl’s suggestions of appropriate strategies for what he terms “Radical Children’s Literature.”
A guest lecture by Dr David Callahan, Department of Languages and Cultures, Aveiro University, Portugal.
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