<i>Barnlitteraturanalyser</i> (review)
2010; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 48; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bkb.0.0296
ISSN1918-6983
Autores ResumoReviewed by: Barnlitteraturanalyser Ines Galling SWEDEN Maria Andersson and Elina Druker (EDS) Barnlitteraturanalyser [Analyses of children's literature] Lund: Studentlitteratur 2008 213 pp ISBN 9789144040288 22,00 The title Barnlitteraturanalyser is well chosen because this edited volume offers an analysis of classics of twentieth-century Swedish children's literature such as Alfons Åberg (Engl. Alfie Atkins) or Gittan. The contributions present mainly close readings focusing on the conceptualization and function of the fictional characters. Texts by Astrid Lindgren, Zacharias Topelius, or Elsa Beskow generally serve as references, opening up comparative and historical perspectives. While some articles describe individual children's book heroes, others take a more thematic approach and also include non-Swedish texts. For example, Boel Westin explores the motif of the dream in children's literature (including in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland); Maria Lassén-Seger traces feral children in picture books, and Maria Nikolajeva studies the fictional genre of the diary novel. All twelve contributions demonstrate that children's literature often breaks with stereotypical representations of children and childhood. If conventional formulas are being perpetuated, they claim, this generally betrays nostalgic or idealizing tendencies. It becomes apparent that contemporary representations of childhood continue, modify, and subvert literary traditions. The literary models are also shown to be reactions to non-literary, ideological conceptions of childhood. Most contributions reflect on this nexus between text and context, even if not always [End Page 62] explicitly so; prior knowledge of the mental and cultural context is generally assumed. This is compensated for by an explicit mention of this interpenetration of fact and fiction in the editors' introduction. Copyright © 2010 Bookbird, Inc.
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