The girl-grandmother relation in Japanese children's literature

Abstract

This chapter examines cultural representations of the family and pseudo-family or post-family relations between elderly women and young girls. The main texts analysed here are contemporary picture storybooks. The topic relates to a number of issues and genres that have been marginalised in literary studies. My aim is not simply to fill this gap and connect those who are regarded as disparate – such as the young girl and the elderly woman – but also to foreground the rich, complex and often intriguing, socio-political, textual and artistic issues that arise in these texts that are mainly targeted at children. The discussion will demonstrate that literature is not merely a mirror or microcosm of society but also contains elements that enlighten, educate, entertain and criticise, directly and indirectly, pragmatically and symbolically. As Adrienne Rich says,One of the great functions of art is to help us imagine what it is like to be not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.1