Goodbye, Ghetto: Further Comparative Approaches to Children's Literature

PMLA ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiera Vaclavik
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Comparative Research ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Literature Theory ◽  
Blind Spots

In 2005 Emer O'Sullivan published the most comprehensive outline to date of a comparative approach to the study of literature and other cultural productions for the young. She presents nine constituent areas of comparative study in relation to children's literature (theory of children's literature, contact and transfer studies, comparative poetics, intertextuality studies, intermediality studies, image studies, comparative genre studies, comparative historiography of children's literature, comparative history of children's literature studies), which she illustrates with examples from around the world. But, although extensive, O'Sullivan's proposal is not without its blind spots, and she acknowledges that it “can only be enhanced by future discussion and modification” (12). With the aim of bolstering the field of children's literature, I here propose an area of comparative research overlooked by O'Sullivan. I also suggest extensions to her conception of comparative literature and to her handling of reception or reader response.

scholarly journals Illustrations in Children’s Educational Books in Russia in the Late 17th – Early 19th Centuries

2020 ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
Nina L. Panina ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The aim of this article is to analyse the transition period in the history of illustrating children’s educational books on the material of Russian-language publications. It is the period in which the function of an intermedial representation gradually develops from emblematic to encyclopedic and narrative-figurative images. This process is related to the literary history of children’s books and their genre transformations. In the last third of the 18th century, children’s literature in Russia was formed as an independent direction with its special goals, and the basis for further search for specific methods of children’s book design, including educational ones, was laid. In the first quarter of the 19th century, the children’s book had a typical European visual design and continued the trends inherited from the 18th century: translations, borrowings, and revised texts in publications often copied illustrations rather than made new ones. A new stage came at the end of the 1820s, when Russia was actively developing independent children’s literature, and professional authors and criticism appeared. It was the time of the pedagogical experiments of Vasily Zhukovsky. This article does not claim to analyse Zhukovsky’s pedagogical activity comprehensively, but this activity is significant for the subject-matter of the study. In his pedagogy, Zhukovsky went to a new level when searching for intermedial ways of transmission of the universal coherence of phenomena, the systemic representation of knowledge about the world, and the ideas of the world as a system. The search, though much slower, was also observed in contemporary children’s books. The integration of cognitive and didactic functions in the Russian-language children’s book of the 18th century resulted in a mix of different principles of illustration in one publication. These principles are: (1) emblematic: the title, image, and text form a three-part structure; (2) encyclopedic: the sheet contains separate numbered images of the same type of objects excluded from the visual context; (3) narrative: the plot, expressive and figurative, including caricature, illustrations are readily used in an educational book due to their persuasiveness. Each of these principles has its own ways of displaying coherence. An encyclopedic illustration shows an object in a series of similar ones, in an enumeration, shows the structure of the object. An emblem gives its symbolic and allegorical interpretation. A narrative illustration shows its functions and its involvement in causal relations, depicting the environment of events and objects. The children’s book of the studied period tends to integrate all these ways. While the emblem as an independent intermedial genre degrades, certain elements of the emblematic tradition are actively borrowed by new forms of publications. The emblem gives the European book of modern times the most important intermedial tools for displaying universal coherence, the world as a system. The change of the epochs leads to an inevitable blurring of the meaning of the emblematic sign. The transitive nature of the analysed period is expressed in the search for a new intermedial form of coherence, similar to the lost emblematic bimediality of the text and illustration in terms of effectiveness. In the search for such a form, encyclopedic publications that claimed to be all-encompassing use the emblematic and narrative principles of illustration. In turn, the narrative illustration, driven by a similar desire for inclusiveness, consistency, and universality, absorbs the emblematic and encyclopedic principles.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Julia Round
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
History Of ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Blind Spots

This introductory chapter explains why Misty and British girls’ comics are culturally significant and textually interesting, and situates them within the bigger picture of Gothic scholarship. It argues that the history of the British comics industry is in danger of being forgotten due to a lack of records, but is relevant to those writing for children today, particularly as Gothic themes are on the rise. It provides a literature review of Gothic scholarship and notes in particular definitional problems, the diversity of critical approaches, and blind spots within current scholarship that has often neglected girls’ and children’s literature. Key terms such as terror, horror, mystery and ambivalence are defined, and the chapter closes by summarising the structure of the book.

scholarly journals Homosexual parenthood in children’s literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (28) ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
Miroslav Jindra
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Know How ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Controversial Topic

Homosexuality in children’s literature is still a controversial topic in many countries of the world. Not only are people afraid to talk about this theme with children, they do not know how. The history of this topic in children’s literature dates back to the 80s of the 20th century, when the first books were published. In 20th century, human society went through many changes which were reflected in all the fields of art (theatre, fine arts, literature, etc.). Writers had a need to familiarise children readers with ‘taboo topics’ such as homosexuality, death, drugs, etc. They wanted to introduce homosexuals as ordinary men and women, who live their own lives with their joys and worries. Today, we can find three main themes in children’s literature: coming out, the life of homosexuals and homosexual parenthood. Each theme has its own specifics and typical reader age group of children or youth. This characterisation can help us to deeper identify the topic. The literature offers children and youth better and easier cognition of the world with its differences. The aim is to learn about the history of homosexuality in children’s literature and go deeper into its individual themes, especially homosexual parenthood. Children need to know everything about life and have no taboos. Why are we afraid to talk about it?

scholarly journals Ljiljan rano ubrani Bernardina Franjka Horvat

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (1.) ◽  
Author(s):  
Šimun Musa ◽  
S. Elvira Lovrić
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Young People ◽  
Nursery School ◽  
School Teacher ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Dramatic Works ◽  
The World ◽  
Special Value ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nursery School Teacher

This paper speaks about a nun, Bernardina Franjka Horvat, an almost unknown person in the history of the Croatian literature (unjustifiably suppressed in the world of children’s literature), who beside her monastic duty was an exemplary nursery-school teacher and professor. With all these kinds of job she was active in literature and wrote, especially for children, poems and stories, and with a special success dramatic works – plays. In her works, mostly motivated by the biblical content, which she deeply experienced and expressed with an obvious esthetic talent, the special value is language, completely clear and natural, alive, supple and melodious and "style light as breeze, diction clear as crystal, and her points blue as sky”. Completely devoted to her monastic duties, very engaged in education of young people, not rejecting "orders” for writing poems, stories and plays in different occasions, in the same time writing in accordance with her own creative inspiration, and with giving herself to the fellow creatures, very frail, broken with tuberculosis, she died at the age of 33. 

A Confrontation between Two Doctrines: The Birth of Struggle for Hegemony in Hebrew Children's Literature during the 1930s and 1940s

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAEL DARR
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Single Channel ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literary Creation ◽  
History Of ◽  
High Level ◽  
First Time ◽  
Literary Quality

This article describes a crucial and fundamental stage in the transformation of Hebrew children's literature, during the late 1930s and 1940s, from a single channel of expression to a multi-layered polyphony of models and voices. It claims that for the first time in the history of Hebrew children's literature there took place a doctrinal confrontation between two groups of taste-makers. The article outlines the pedagogical and ideological designs of traditionalist Zionist educators, and suggests how these were challenged by a group of prominent writers of adult poetry, members of the Modernist movement. These writers, it is argued, advocated autonomous literary creation, and insisted on a high level of literary quality. Their intervention not only dramatically changed the repertoire of Hebrew children's literature, but also the rules of literary discourse. The article suggests that, through the Modernists’ polemical efforts, Hebrew children's literature was able to free itself from its position as an apparatus controlled by the political-educational system and to become a dynamic and multi-layered field.

GENRE OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL IN THE OSSETIAN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.Б. Бритаева
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Xxth Century ◽  
The Family ◽  
Moral Aspect ◽  
History Of ◽  
Post War

В представленной статье на материале произведений Музафера Дзасохова известного современного осетинского писателя, поэта, публициста, переводчика, рассматриваются художественные особенности лирической прозы, а именно, автобиографической повести в осетинской детской литературе. Повесть Весенние звезды (1973) и ее продолжение На берегу Уршдона Барагун (1981) стали началом эпопеи о жизни отдельно взятой семьи, а на их примере всей страны в тяжелые послевоенные годы. В качестве одной из важнейших констант художественного мира писателя рассматривается образ детства. В ходе анализа особое внимание уделяется преобладанию нравственного аспекта, актуализации проблемы регулятивно-воспитательной функции национального этикета, ценностно-нормативных ориентиров осетинской ментальности. С опорой на биографический и историко-генетический методы, основное внимание в исследовании акцентируется на темах послевоенного детства, роли семьи и общества в формировании нравственных ориентиров, в становлении личности, образе матери, теме памяти, а также на художественном осмыслении этих проблем и тем в автобиографических повестях писателя. Типологически воплощение детской темы в творчестве М. Дзасохова во многом опирается на традицию изображения детства в русской автобиографической прозе XX в. В заключительной части сформулированы выводы, отражающие особенности лирической прозы в творчестве М. Дзасохова, обозначено место автобиографических повестей автора в контексте осетинской детской литературы второй половины XX века.Актуальность и научная новизна работы обусловлены недостаточной исследованностью истории и проблем осетинской детской литературы. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы при написании истории осетинской детской литературы. The present article examines the artistic features of lyrical prose, namely, autobiographical story in the Ossetian childrens literature in the works of Muzafer Dzasokhov, a well-known modern Ossetian writer, poet, publicist, translator. The story Spring Stars (1973) and its continuation - On the Bank of Ursdon Baragun ... (1981) marked the beginning of an epic about the life of a family, and via their fates the author shows life of the whole country in the difficult post-war years. The theme of childhood is considered as one of the most important constants of the writers artistic world. In the course of the analysis, special attention is paid to the predominance of the moral aspect, the actualization of the problem of the regulatory and educational function of national etiquette, the value and normative guidelines of the Ossetian mentality. The focus of the study is based on biographical and historical-genetic methods and highlights the themes of post-war childhood, the role of the family and society in the formation of moral guidelines, in the formation of personality, the image of the mother, the theme of memory, as well as on the artistic understanding of these problems and topics in autobiographical novels of the writer. Typologically, the embodiment of the childrens theme in the works of M. Dzasokhov is largely based on the tradition of depicting childhood in Russian autobiographical prose of the XXth century. The formulated conclusions in the final part reflect the peculiarities of lyrical prose in the works of M. Dzasokhov, the place of the authors autobiographical stories is indicated in the context of Ossetian childrens literature of the second half of the XXth century. The relevance and scientific novelty of the work are due to insufficient research on the history and problems of Ossetian childrens literature. The results of the study can be used in writing the history of Ossetian childrens literature.

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