This paper explores the transition from the theme of the “lost child” to that of “lost parent(s)” in children’s literature in India. In the case of the “lost child,” the child is lost but the parents/family are together, and for the lost child it is s/he who is alone and has lost his or her parents. Therefore, in traditional narratives, if a child is lost, a child is lost to his or her parents, and so are the parents lost to the child. But in a strange reversal of this pattern in contemporary Indian children’s literature, it is now common that the child is present but the parent or parents are missing. In this leap, the writers of children’s literature have deviated from the established structure of “home-away-home” in which the child is lost to a condition when either or both parents are missing. Children’s literature is traditionally embedded within the paradoxical nature of the adult/child binary and it is common for writers of children’s literature to discard the adult and centralize the child. However, despite the peripheral treatment of parents in children’s literature, this paper argues that the absolute necessity of parental care still remains for the child “inside” and “outside” the text. The need for parents still remains the same in contemporary times, yet children’s texts also show how a child is affected when either or both parents are absent. Contemporary Indian children’s literature addresses this issue of “missing parents” by introducing “alternate parenting” into the narrative.

中文翻译：

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“父母失踪”案：印度英语英语文学中的儿童文学

本文探讨了印度儿童文学中从“失落的孩子”主题到“失落的父母”主题的转变。对于“失散的孩子”，孩子会迷失，但父母/家人在一起，而对于失散的孩子，只有他/她独自一人，失去了父母。因此，在传统叙事中，如果一个孩子迷路了，一个孩子就迷失了他或她的父母，而父母迷失了这个孩子。但是，在当代印度儿童文学中这种模式的一种奇怪的逆转中，现在普遍的情况是，孩子在场，但父母或父母却失踪了。在这一飞跃中，儿童文学的作者偏离了既定的“家外之家”结构，在这种结构中，儿童失去了父母中的任何一方或双方失踪的状况。儿童文学传统上嵌入了成人/儿童二元悖论的本质，儿童文学作家抛弃成人并集中儿童是很常见的。但是，尽管在儿童文学中对父母进行了外围对待，但本文认为，仍然需要在文本的“内部”和“外部”对孩子进行父母照顾。在当代，对父母的需求仍然保持不变，但是儿童的教科书也显示了当父母中的任何一个或两个都缺席时如何影响儿童。当代印度儿童文学通过在叙事中引入“替代育儿”来解决“父母失踪”这一问题。