Children’s literature belongs simultaneously to the literary and the educational sys-tem – this is why the notions of the aesthetic and the pedagogical seem to be crucial in its study. They are often seen as opposing each other. The dichotomy between them appears to be even more interesting when approached from a cross-cultural perspective. Whereas English authors of books for the young reader were among the first to support the development of the children’s book into an art form in its own right (around the middle of the 19th century), their Polish counterparts followed suit decades later, as earliest attempts at writing artistically and without excessive didacticism appeared in the 1930s. In this context, a question arises whether and to what extent these traditional approaches to children’s literature and critique are still topical. I will address this question on the basis of a qualitative analysis of themed blogs written about literature for the young reader published in Poland and in the United Kingdom in the recent years. Interestingly, blogs discussing children’s literature are not addressed directly to the child, but to the “mediator circle”, or “gate-keepers”, primarily parents, teachers and librarians. With the help of content analysis and discourse analysis tools, I will try to determine the main themes present in their discussion of children’s and young adult literature, and to address them from the perspective of the traditional dichotomy between the aesthetic and the pedagogical.
Children’s literature plays a key role in the process of socialization. It is one of the crucial factors which help the young reader to understand the surrounding world, also in terms of what is one’s own and what is other, different. On the one hand, its task is reflecting the existing reality, on the other-shaping specific attitudes towards it, for example through strengthening existing stereotypes or calling them in question. In English-language literature on the subject one can find numerous analyses of both broadly understood intercultural literature and depictions of individual nationalities, cultures, and races. So far, Polish children’s literature has not attracted much scholarly attention in this respect. It might result from the fact that the Polish population is to a large extent a homogenous group as regards race and nationality. However, this state of affairs is gradually changing, as Poland starts to attract migrants from all over the world and national and ethnic minorities already inhabiting the country are being discovered. In this context, it seems particularly interesting to ask if and how these social changes have influenced Polish children’s literature of today. The goal of this paper is to outline the issue of cultural diversity, in particular the presence of the national and ethnic “other” in the newest Polish children’s literature, according to criteria developed on the basis of Short, Lynch-Brown and Tomlinson’s guidelines (2014). The paper is also an attempt at determining to what extent Polish children’s literature corresponds with the model of intercultural education. As the analysis shows, Polish literature on cultural diversity is scarce, involves non-representative depictions of minorities, and lacks the “insider” perspective, and thus fulfills the postulates of intercultural education only in a limited way.
Celem artykułu jest analiza językowych i wizualnych przedstawień wojny w książkach obrazkowych. Omówiono w nim współzależność słów i obrazów z wykorzystaniem taksonomii opracowanej przez Nikolajevą i Scott (2006), wykazując, że stosowanie zamierzonych luk w tekście i obrazie stanowi podstawę większości przeanalizowanych środków narracyjnych. Luki pełnią także funkcję ochronną, umożliwiając opis wydarzeń traumatycznych z uwzględnieniem obowiązujących norm społecznych i pedagogicznych.
EN
The goal of the study is to analyse linguistic and visual representations of war in picture books. The paper shows the interplay between words and pictures employing Nikolajeva and Scott’s (2006) taxonomy, demonstrating that it is the use of gaps in the visual or verbal code that lies behind most narrative devices analysed. Gaps also fulfill a protective function, helping to balance the need to tell young readers about traumatic events and to account for social and pedagogical norms in operation.
JavaScript jest wyłączony w Twojej przeglądarce internetowej. Włącz go, a następnie odśwież stronę, aby móc w pełni z niej korzystać.