Postcolonial Treasure

Conference poster for the 14th Annual International Illustration Research Symposium Author – Laurence North Title - Postcolonial Treasure, , history and experience of Empire and Colonialism The Four Corners Books Familiars series revisits texts that are part of a literary heritage; the Familiars series is described by the publishers as allowing visual artists to provide a fresh look at the tradition of the illustrated novel. Stevenson’s Treasure Island was republished in 2022 by Four Corners Books with new illustrations by Shiraz Bayjoo. Bayjoo’s illustrations reframe if not re-author Treasure Island as a Postcolonial text that gives voice to both historical and contemporary peoples previously excluded from the narrative. The Four Corners Books edition also provides us with an interesting model of authorship that provokes engagement with well-established works by Barthes and Foucault that cast Stevenson and Bayjoo as noncooperative co-scriptors in contrast to the normal expectations of the writer illustrator working relationship.