Memory and Displacement in Historical Fiction for Children about the Second World War, 2005?2021

Abstract

This thesis examines the representation of memory and displacement in Anglophone historical fiction for children published between 2005 and 2021. It argues that memory is a significant aspect of how these texts ask the reader to engage with displacement. While there has been considerable discussion of Second World War displacement in twentieth century historical fiction for children, there has been little examination of twenty-first century material. Considering a select group of texts published in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, this study addresses this critical gap by examining how recent texts reimagine and reconstruct Second World War displacement for the twenty-first century implied child reader. Over the course of four chapters, I examine the representation of different histories of Second World War childhood displacement, including British evacuation narratives, Japanese American incarceration, and mass displacement in continental Europe. The following texts are discussed in detail: Wave me Goodbye (2017) by Jacqueline Wilson; Letters from the Lighthouse (2017) by Emma Carroll; Paper Wishes (2016) by Lois Sepahban; Dust of Eden (2014) by Mariko Nagai; Displacement (2020) by Kiku Hughes; the Once series (2005- 2021) by Morris Gleitzman; Refugee (2017) by Alan Gratz; and Salt to the Sea (2016) by Ruta Sepetys. My analysis of these texts illuminates the manner in which historical fiction written in a variety of literary forms, including prose fiction, series fiction, and the verse novel, ask the twenty-first century implied child reader to consider Second World War as part of the present. The theoretical approach to memory in this study is guided by cultural memory theory and considers memory as social phenomena. My analysis is also contextualised within critical discussions of historical fiction for children, children?s literature about the Second World War, and memory in children?s fiction. This thesis demonstrates that, as the Second World War becomes a more distant history, historical fiction seeks to engage twenty-first century readers with this past through complex and dynamic constructions of memory.