Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons^™

Political And Cultural Battles In A Postcolonial Picture Book From Wales, Petros Panaou

Petros Panaou

Nationalistic projects and bloody conflicts around the world testify to the nation's determination to fight the forces that threaten its sovereignty. The present discussion reads Cantre'r Gwaelod (1996) – a Welsh book from the European Picture Book Collection – as an attempt to defend the idea of national identity. The colonial and postcolonial cultural battles that have been taking place in Wales, and elsewhere, for the duration of centuries have not left children, or children's literature, unaffected. When the Welsh picture book is situated in its local environment, it becomes apparent that it advocates resistance to `foreign invasion'. The waves …