A Whole War Inside One Small Body

Separation – from your family, your home, your country; a journey – to escape, to return, or an inward journey of healing, self discovery and self construction: these are recurrent themes in the four novels about children and war that are examined in this study of works by critically acclaimed authors Rachel Anderson, Bernard Ashley, Peter Dickinson and Robert Westall. These stories have different wars as their contexts, in different countries and historical periods: Vietnam, the Gulf, civil conflicts in African countries and London gang warfare, but while varying in their approaches, the novels share a richness of setting, characterisation and narrative structure, and a powerful capacity to involve readers emotionally and intellectually. Causes are explained or suggested, but it is essentially upon the far-reaching effects of war in time and place, on ordinary people, the civilian population and children, especially, that the authors turn their attention.

Anna Lukianowicz is a researcher in English at Macerata University. She has taught numerous courses on English literature and is now involved principally in teaching language and translation. Her main research interests are in the field of children’s literature. She has published a study of Susan Cooper’s fantasy sequence, The Dark is Rising, and has recently focused her attention on the depiction of war and conflict in literature for children and young adult readers.

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