Meo's Fists – Fighting For or Against Fascism? The Subversive Nature of Text and Image in Giovanni Bertinetti's I pugni di Meo

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
LINDSAY MYERS
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Text And Image ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Book Illustrations ◽  
Words And Images ◽  
Stylistic Changes

During the 1920s and 1930s Italian children's literature was heavily influenced by fascist propaganda. Stories which celebrated patriotism, militarism and obedience appeared in great numbers as did biographies of Mussolini. Children's book illustrations also underwent stylistic changes becoming more statuary and geometric in accordance with the principles behind fascist architecture and propagandist art. Not all of the Italian writers and artists who ostensibly endorsed fascist ideologies, however, were entirely compliant with fascist dictates. Careful reading of some of the key works by writers and artists outwardly supportive of the regime reveals underlying subversive political ideologies, the majority of which have yet to be acknowledged. One of the ways in which writers and artists of the fascist period inscribed subversive ideologies in their works was by manipulating contemporary visual and verbal codes. This paper focuses on the dialectic of text and image in Giovanni Bertinetti's I pugni di Meo [Meo's fists], a children's fantasy, illustrated by the well-known artist, Attilio Mussino. Situating text and illustrations in their socio-political context, it discusses how these artists manipulated words and images to convey an ideology of moderation in the midst of excessive use and abuse of power in Italy in the 1930s.

scholarly journals The Evolvement of the Israeli Grandmother – As Reflected in Children’s Book Illustrations

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Nitsa Dori
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Advanced Technology ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Visual Interpretation ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Book Illustrations ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Shed Light

Gender and ageism as mirrored in illustrations of grandmothers in Hebrew children’s books (1930-2020), shed light on the Israeli reality, which shows the world’s portrayal of grandmothers as sometimes empowering and sometimes discriminatory. This article draws from the fields of the visual arts, gender studies, sociology, and culture, and emphasizes the power of illustration in children’s literature as an activistic tool for changing social and familial awareness among young receivers. The grandmother (and, recently, also the grandfather) is a popular character in children’s literature. The article will present models which shape the consciousness of children’s book illustrators regarding old age with the aid of many visual examples. This article will enable deeper understanding of the gender-based messages and effects of visual interpretation. This study can serve as a tool for educators and parents, to help children develop critical, independent, and value-based thinking. The article concludes that in today’s books, grandmothers appear more connected to advanced technology than ever. The illustrators of today’s children’s books connect with the model of the new grandmother and draw her wearing jeans and without wrinkles. In parallel, we also see traditionally-portrayed grandmothers in certain illustrations in recent books, from a post-feminist, rather than stereotypical, approach.

Analysis of Latino award winning children’s literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 507-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Gomm ◽  
Melissa Allen Heath ◽  
Pat Mora
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Latino Children ◽  
Emotional Needs ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Children's Picture Books ◽  
Award Winning

In this article, we offer information about the specific challenges US Latino immigrant children face. We then determine which of these challenges are included in 72 award winning children’s picture books, specifically created for and/or about Latino children. Our analysis offers information to assist school-based mental health professionals, children’s librarians, educators, and parents in prescriptively selecting books that align with Latino children’s social emotional needs. Additionally, we analysed each book’s proportion of Spanish/English text and described the book’s targeted age level and Horn Book Guide rating. From our perspective, books containing colorful illustrations that include Latino children, realistic situations, familiar Spanish words and phrases, and true-to-life characters help Latino children engage and identify with these stories. Children’s book author Pat Mora also explains her perceptions of quality children’s literature. Although this article is specific to Latino children’s literature, implications are offered that generalize to other ethnic and cultural groups that are typically underrepresented in children’s literature.

Reflecting Diversity

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
Lea Shaver
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
White People ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
American Experience ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
The People ◽  
Upper Middle Class

This chapter describes the book Underpants Dance, which only depicts four white people out of all the thirty characters. However, the book still shows quite a significant underrepresentation of America's diversity. In this story, none of the people of color are important enough to have names. They serve only as a sprinkling of color in the background. The book's settings and events also reflect a distinctly upper-middle-class lifestyle. The chapter further explains that there is nothing wrong with any single children's book being culturally specific to a white, upper-income, American experience. The problem is that this pattern is so strong that children's literature as a whole is systematically less attractive or even alienating to children who do not fit that mold.

scholarly journals The Proper and Foreing: The Problem of French Children’s Literature Translation into Ukrainian

2021 ◽  
pp. 219-237
Author(s):  
Nataliia Yakubovska ◽  
Halyna Kutasevych ◽  
Kateryna Balakhtar
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Second Step ◽  
Educational Purpose ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Living Together ◽  
Editorial Strategies ◽  
Target Culture

The translation of children’s literature has certain specificities because it must be subject to several constraints: taking into account the double recipient in children’s literature (child and adult), the educational purpose, the diastratic variation, etc. Wonderful Neighbors (2016) by Hélène Lasserre is a children’s book about difference, tolerance and living together. The gap between French and Ukrainian cultures leads to problems with the perception of socio-cultural realia by readers of the target language who sometimes misunderstand or even reject them. In this intervention, we analyze the perception of the album by the readership of the source and target culture based on the comments of the readers which will allow understanding the editorial strategies and the choices of translation procedures made by the translators. In particular, we study the text-image relationships and the influence of extralinguistic factors on the lexical level. In a second step, it is necessary to analyze the role of the educational purpose which may provide for certain censorship of children’s text to which the translator must obey in order to meet the demands of a publisher and his/her readership.

scholarly journals The Construction of Pious Children in Serial Salman Dan Hamzah

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Deden Purnama ◽  
Dhita Hapsarani
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Book Illustration ◽  
Textual Study ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Religious Ideal

Children’s literature is often used as a medium for teaching values, for example religious values, in order to shape children’s character based on the understanding or ideology of certain groups. Through religious-based children’s literature, the figure of a religious ideal child was created and called a pious child. This example is applied by Salafi Islamic groups in Indonesia. The group that bases its teachings from the Salaf creates Islamic children’s book genre called ”Sunna children’s book”. The method used in this article is library-based qualitative research. Studies of pious character in European minority Muslim children’s literature have been widely carried out by Green-Oldendorf (2011), Shavit (2016) and Janson (2017), while studies of pious children in Indonesian contexts have only been done little, including this article. Textual study on the construction of pious children character is carried out according to the concept of ideal child in children’s literature by Purbani (2009), children book illustration and visual by Nodelman (2004), and pious Muslim child and childhood by research approach (Hendra-Priadi, 2019 and Scourfield et. al., 2013). The result of the research shows that pious children are represented through the main character who is very diligent in worshiping, behaving well, and obedient to parents. In addition, the construction of pious children in Serial Salman dan Hamzah is based on Salafi ideology concept of tarbiyah (education) that textually refers to the Quran and Hadith.

scholarly journals Children's book in Siberia: a historiographic review

Bibliosphere ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 35-40
Author(s):  
E. V. Engalycheva
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Book Publishing ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Design Activity ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
History Of ◽  
Childhood Reading

The article is devoted to the history of Siberian regional children's book publishing. The author has collected theoretic-practical opinions of historians, bibliologists, publishers and booksellers, librarians and bibliographers, psychologists and sociologists, which purpose is to generalize and reveal regularities of books' flow for children. V. G. Belinsky, L. N. Tolstoy, F. G. Tol’, N. V. Chekhov developed the first concepts of children's book. N. K. Krupskaya, V. A. Sukhomlinsky studied the «core» of the children book repertoire. V. G. Sopikov, B. S. Bondarsky reviewed children's literature of the 19th century in their bibliographic works. The author allocated some organizational components using formal-logical, comparative-historical and structural-typological methods. The first block is related to studying such definitions as «children's book», «children's literature», «editions for children», «a circle of childhood reading», «the repertoire of children's books», their typological signs. The presented concepts are investigated according to tasks, which children's editions solve. S. G. Antonova and S. A. Karaichentseva touched issues of children's literature typology in their publications. The second block of literature reveals the children's book development in Russia in various periods of its formation. I. E. Barenbaum, A. A. Grechikhin, A. A. Belovitskaya studied general fundamentals of the book's history, while A. Ivich, L. Kohn, I. Lupanova considered the history of children’s books. The third block is devoted to printing and art features of the children's book design, activity of universal and specialized publishing houses to distribute literature for children. The fourth block explains such category as «reader - library», considers techniques of work with children's book, offers methodical recommendations for teachers and tutors. Readers’ activity is examined as well. The author analyzes interests, factors, incentives and aims influencing childhood reading. Dissertation researches disclose the regional specifics of children's book publishing in 1980-2013, confirm the considered subject relevance. The historical, comparative, formal and logical analysis carried out by the author will be useful both the specialists in publishing and editorial affairs, researchers studying the history and development of the children's book, historians, and teachers in the educational process of such courses as «Publishing and Editing», «Children's Literature», «Book Science». The author concludes that the children's book has been studied in different periods of its development in the context of numerous aspects, directions and components, which makes it possible to reveal the special patterns of its existence.

scholarly journals Prize Culture and Diversity in British Children's Literature

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-106
Author(s):  
Lucy Pearson ◽  
Karen Sands-O'Connor ◽  
Aishwarya Subramanian
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
Imagined Community ◽  
Children's Book ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
Prize Culture ◽  
Minority Ethnic

Literary prizes often determine eligibility in terms of nationality; this article posits that they also play a significant role in constructing national literatures. An analysis of the Carnegie Medal, the UK's oldest children's book award, and some of its competitors, including the Guardian Prize and Other Award demonstrates the tension between the desire to claim cultural value for children's literature and to construct a body of literature that represents the real and imagined community of the nation. In the UK, this tension appears most notably with regard to depictions of Black, Asian and minority ethnic Britons.

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