Abstract

This study addresses the themes of conflict, adversity, and dislocation in three contemporary children’s works by Elizabeth Laird. These works are Oranges in No Man’s Land, Kiss the Dust, and Welcome to Nowhere. It explores the aforementioned themes through the lens of trauma theory, and studies how the child characters in the works are affected by these themes. The thesis concludes with an analogy that compares and contrasts the way the three works depict and represent the themes, and the characters’ interaction with these themes. The thesis finds that the depiction of the themes in question in the selected works, to an extent, corresponds with scientific and literary studies. This study recommends further research to be conducted on the representation of children refugees in refugee literature set in areas of the Middle East, as well as more research to investigate the representation of trauma and melancholia in children’s literature and the appropriate ways to integrate children’s literature with solemn themes into classroom readings.