“Do They Dream? Do They Cry?”

Abstract

Children’s novels written by Maryse Condé, Edwidge Danticat, and Gisèle Pineau deal with social and political issues regarding Caribbean people and their diaspora. Gender relationships and violence against women within a postcolonial context feature prominently in their adult novels. This chapter intends to examine to what extent adult texts leave their mark in these authors’ books for young readers, where specific issues of the female condition seem to be overshadowed, or at least addressed in a less pessimistic way. Children’s literature does offer a window into girls and women’s struggles in a postcolonial, male-dominated society. Boundaries between adult and children’s literature may be more permeable than expected.