Language, Authenticity, and Representation in Dutch Caribbean Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of children’s and young adult literature from the Dutch Caribbean. The focus is primarily on literature from Curaçao but extends into works produced by writers from Aruba, Bonaire, and Sint Maarten. The intention is to capture an “authentic” ontology in Dutch Caribbean children’s and young adult literature by tracing the past and present cultural aesthetics presented in the works by writers who originate from these islands. Ultimately, the chapter introduces the aesthetic consciousness of a postcolonial people still grappling with a linguistic and cultural identity tacitly still informed by “the gaze” of the metropolis. Dutch Caribbean writers of children’s and young adult literature negotiate the coloniality of power and seek to introduce a subjectivity and “living culture” sensed and authorized on Dutch Caribbean soil. Authors covered include Miep Diekmann, Diana Lebacs, and Loekie Morales. Literary languages of books covered Papiamentu/o, Spanish, Dutch, and English.