Worlding in Victorian children's literature: Reading colours in selected texts

Abstract

This paper attempts to discuss and analyse colour in Victorian children’s literature, with a specific axis to addressing systems of inequality and subjugation, including wielding a postcolonial lens. I propose to do that by borrowing a concept from the postcolonial theory laid down by Spivak, the theory of worlding. It refers to how the colonised space is refashioned and remodelled for the native by the coloniser. Although the native is familiar with their birthplace, the refashioning works through processes such as cartography, travelling, and writing. A similar process happens through pedagogy as well, which continues as an invisible form of colonisation. Children’s narratives have always been a strong weapon for worlding, as I try to illustrate through the paper. Worlding is an appropriate concept to be applied to the genre of children’s literature, as the space has been designed and historically used for constructing the child’s world. Through inspecting selected narratives of Victorian children’s fiction, I look at the role of colour in the process of worlding, and how it manifests as different experiences for the genders.

Keywords: colour studies, Victorian age, gender, race, imperialism.