Ideology, Myth and Politics in Children’s Literature: A close-reading of ‘Die Krismiskinders’ by C.J. Langenhoven (1926, 1978)

Abstract

In the context of Post-Colonial readings, my thesis offers a close-reading of the prominent South-African children's book"Die krismiskinders". Through an intertextual reading I deconstruct the workings of ideology and myth, while also reading the political context in the text. We find that the construction of whiteness works in the disguise of normality, that civilization is demarcated by bordering barbarians, that white fear of the black mass intruding on their safe home is represented as a danger, that the colonial positionality between white and black is shown as a philosophical issue and that christianity here works as an imposing authority devoid of all logic.