scholarly journals Syntax, Readability and Ideology in Children's Literature

2002 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 524-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiina Puurtinen
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Literary Systems ◽  
Children’S Fiction ◽  
Initial Focus ◽  
Children's Fiction

Abstract This article outlines the aims and methodology of a new study in the field of children's literature. The research makes use of a composite corpus representing original English, original Finnish and translated Finnish from English. The initial focus of this investigation is the analysis of nonfinite constructions, taken as a measure of readability of children's books. Ultimately its aim is to infer, through the interpretation of the lexico-grammatical patterns emerging in the corpus, the ideological norms prevailing in the literary systems of English and Finnish children's fiction.

The Adult as Foe or Friend?: Childism in Guus Kuijer's Criticism and Fiction

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Joosen
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Memorial Award ◽  
Adult Reader ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

Compared to the attention that children's literature scholars have paid to the construction of childhood in children's literature and the role of adults as authors, mediators and readers of children's books, few researchers have made a systematic study of adults as characters in children's books. This article analyses the construction of adulthood in a selection of texts by the Dutch author and Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winner Guus Kuijer and connects them with Elisabeth Young-Bruehl's recent concept of ‘childism’ – a form of prejudice targeted against children. Whereas Kuijer published a severe critique of adulthood in Het geminachte kind [The despised child] (1980), in his literary works he explores a variety of positions that adults can take towards children, with varying degrees of childist features. Such a systematic and comparative analysis of the way grown-ups are characterised in children's texts helps to shed light on a didactic potential that materialises in different adult subject positions. After all, not only literary and artistic aspects of children's literature may be aimed at the adult reader (as well as the child), but also the didactic aspect of children's books can cross over between different age groups.

A content analysis of gender representation in Malaysian children's literature

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 49
Author(s):  
Ramesh Nair
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
English Language ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Minor Characters ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Mental Schemas ◽  
Selection Of

Children's literature serves as a powerful medium through which children construct messages about their roles In society and gender Identity is often central to this construction. Although possessing mental schemas about gender differences is helpful when children organize their ideas of the world around them, problems occur when children are exposed to a constant barrage of uncompromising, gender-schematic sources that lead to stereotyping which in turn represses the full development of the child. This paper focuses on how gender is represented in a selection of Malaysian children's books published in the English language. Relying on the type of content analysis employed by previous feminist social science researchers, I explore this selection of Malaysian children's books for young children and highlight some areas of concern with regard to the construction of maleness and femaleness in these texts. The results reveal Imbalances at various levels Including the distribution of main, supporting and minor characters along gendered lines and the positioning of male and female characters In the visual Illustrations. The stereotyping of these characters In terms of their behavioural traits will be discussed with the aim of drawing attention to the need for us to take concerted measures to provide our children with books that will help them realize their potential to the fullest.

scholarly journals Till ”vildingarnas” land: Barnboksförfattaren besöker förorten

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maj Asplund Carlsson ◽  
Johannes Lunneblad
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Drug Abuse ◽  
Small Business ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Post Colonial

Title: Where “the wild things” are: An author of children’s books on a visit to the suburbsAbstract:Few studies have been carried out on children’s literature from a post-colonial perspective. In this article, we look closer at four picture books recently published in Sweden with the purpose of giving children from urban areas patterns of identification. The aim of our study is to see how the ‘suburb’ is articulated as a multi-accented sign. Three themes are elaborated in our analysis, i.e. loneliness and alienation, drug abuse and misery as well as small business occurrence. We also discuss the consequences for children in early years of an encounter with a distorted or alienated view of suburban culture.

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 Children’s Literature and Translation Under the East German Regime

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 241-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Thomson-Wohlgemuth
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
The Status ◽  
East German ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract This paper describes the status of translation and publication of East German children’s literature during the period of the Cold War. It briefly gives an indication of the high value placed on translation and translators in the socialist regime. Finally it focuses on the main criteria influencing the translation and publication of children’s books with the economic and ideological factors being the most significant and gives brief examples from the East German censorship files.

scholarly journals M.E.R. – 'Reg op ereplek' as kinderboekskrywer

Literator ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-82
Author(s):  
G. Wybenga
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Literary Context ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

M.E.R. – 'The right to a place of honour' as the author of children’s books A recognition of M.E.R.’s writing developed late in her career. One of the reasons for this was most probably that she was almost exclusively involved in writing for children in the 1920s and early 1930s. Her many publications for children included not only “Kinders van die Voortrek” and the well-known “Karlien en Kandas”, but many more. It was only in the late 1940s after she had published books for adults that she received recognition for her work – which did not happen in the case of her earlier children’s books. Although she is at present regarded as a pioneer of children’s literature, these books have still not been accepted as part of the canon. This article attempts to indicate why she is considered a pioneer by situating her work in the literary context of the time. By analysing the individual books for children as texts in their own right, the article demonstates that dichotomising her work into literature for children and literature for adults is not justified. From the onset till the end of her career M.E.R.’s publications form one continuous oeuvre. The same trends observable in her early work for children are present in the later work for adults.

Syntactic Norms in Finnish Children's Literature

Target ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 318-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiina Puurtinen
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Quantitative Study ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
World Knowledge ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Syntactic Difference

Abstract Owing to children's developing reading skills and world knowledge, readability (comprehensibility as well as speakability) can be regarded as an important requirement of children's literature. This article focusses on one determinant of readability, the frequency of nonflnite constructions in children's books both originally written in Finnish and translated from English into Finnish. A high frequency of complex nonfinite constructions is likely to have a negative effect on readability, and consequently they might be expected to occur relatively infrequently both in original and in translated children's literature. A quantitative study of a large number of children's books shows that Finnish originals have indeed tended to favour finiteness, whereas translations show a higher degree of non-finiteness. The translations thus fail to conform to one of the syntactic norms of the receiving literature. The article discusses potential reasons for this syntactic difference, considers the possibility of the existence of different sets of norms for translated and originally Finnish children's books, and speculates upon the innovatory influence of translations.

scholarly journals The Image of Elderly People as Reflected in Israeli Children's Literature

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Yitzhaki ◽  
Mihal Lazar
Keyword(s):  
Children's Literature ◽  
Elderly People ◽  
Children’S Literature ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Children's Books ◽  
Children’S Books ◽  
Life Circumstances

Images of elderly people were checked in dozens of children’s books published in Israel in Hebrew, designed usually for the consumption of the general, not orthodox, public. Generally speaking, images were positive, depicting the elderly people in various life circumstances.

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