Almost all Shaun Tanâs work explores notions of belonging, and related ideas about feeling at home (or not) in time and space. But these issues are most starkly explored in his ï¬rst solo picture book, The Lost Thing (2000), where the narrator, Shaun, relates his discovery of a mysterious, large, red, hybrid being. This article undertakes a close reading of Tanâs text, drawing on the work of theorists like Mary Douglas, Zygmunt Bauman, Giorgio Agamben and Judith Butler to show how societies, through their classiï¬catory logic, manage to deal with any âmatter out of placeâ. It also explores the particular poignancy of âmisplacedâ things in the context of Australia, not only through the Howard Governmentâs draconian treatment of refugees, but also in terms of the countryâs long-standing guilt about its treatment of the Aboriginal âstolen generationâ, and of others, like the forcibly deported British children. In contrast to the more optimistic reading usually given to Tanâs work, a darker, more menacing interpretation is suggested â though a note of hope is still detected in the narratorâs need to record his story. In this way, The Lost Thing is not concerned solely with social issues, but engages with a
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A Sense of (Be)longing in Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing
Rudd, David
Follow International Research in Children's Literature
, Volume 3 (2): 134
Edinburgh University Press – Dec 1, 2010
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