Children's Literature Research Research Articles

Internalisasi nilai pelestarian alam dan pendidikan karakter melalui representasi kejahatan lingkungan dalam sastra anak karya Okky Madasari

The subject of this research is Mata dan Rahasia Pulau Gapi by Okky Madasari. I adopt green cultural criminology and narrative criminology to analyze how the writer describes environmental crime phenomena in her work as a medium for internalizing the value of conservation and character education for children’s readers. This study was designed using the children's literature research method and note-taking technique. The results of this study found that the novel contains two forms of environmental crimes, namely crimes against historical sites and crimes against wildlife. I also found that the author makes the representation of the character's resistance to environmental crimes as a strong message to readers that children have a role as agents to encourage public awareness of environmental issues. In addition, moral licensing by the perpetrators of environmental crimes in this novel is the author's effort to cultivate a critical attitude in child readers.

Thinking with Deconstruction: Book-Adult-Child Events in Children's Literature Research

As Nathalie op de Beeck (2018) has recently pointed out, children's literature scholars need to forge more meaningful connexions between ecoliteracy and environmental action to create possibilities for achieving environmental justice. I propose that we achieve this goal by (auto-)deconstructing our research practices and subjectivities through promoting the participation of children as active contributors to all elements of the research process. Such approaches enable young decision-makers to engage with one another, with books and with the world through ethics of interconnectivity. I see such praxis as exemplifying deconstructive events and discuss their emergence in Shaping a Preferable Future: Children Reading, Thinking and Talking about Alternative Communities and Times (ChildAct), a project I co-conducted with children in Cambridgeshire, UK, in the school year 2017–2018. The project centered on child-adult collaboration towards a better understanding of how utopian literature shapes ideas for preferred futures, how these ideas evolve in readers’ encounters with their localities and how they call readers into action. As I show, ChildAct testifies to the possibility of de-centering children's literature research towards a field promoting a shared sense of belonging to and responsibility for our world.

The Edinburgh Companion to Children's Literature ed. by Clémentine Beauvais and Maria Nikolajeva

Reviewed by: The Edinburgh Companion to Children's Literature ed. by Clémentine Beauvais and Maria Nikolajeva Nina Goga Companions are needed both in life and literature. Old companions do not need to be rejected because new ones appear. New companions are not necessarily better than old ones, but they may be different and hence able to offer new perspectives, guide through unexplored fields, and confront or challenge with their surprising queries. This also applies to The Edinburgh Companion to Children's Literature, compiled and edited by Clémentine Beauvais and Maria Nikolajeva. The two editors have gathered together a team of twenty-four skilled researchers, including themselves. Even though most of them are affiliated with Anglo-American institutions, they still cover a wide range of topics. The Companion is structured in three parts. The first part contains eleven chapters dealing with contemporary directions in children's literature scholarship. Amongst these, there are several related to the larger field of ecocriticism, such as the chapters on posthumanism (Flanagan), animal studies (Jaques), feminist ecocriticism (Curry), and spatiality (Carroll). The large number of chapters concerned with environmental and ecocritical issues is indicative of overall changes within the field of children's literature research. In comparison, The Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature (2009) contains only one chapter on animal and object stories and one on fantasy's alternative geography. It seems that in 2009 these two chapters were samples of "what comes next?" The second part offers eight chapters on contemporary trends in children's and young adult literature, covering themes of great current interest, such as seriality (Kümmerling-Meibauer), translation (Lathey), and picturebooks in foreign language learning contexts (Mourão). It also covers chapters on what may be the most difficult field to circumscribe, namely digital or multimodal children's literature. More (technically) descriptive than literary explorative, these chapters may prove to be difficult for inexperienced students. Perhaps the field itself has grown too vast and disparate to be covered within a few chapters. The editors, Beauvais and Nikolajeva, state that their companion first of all seeks to "capture the most recent trends and phenomena in children's and young adult literature itself as well as international research; to anticipate the possible new avenues that research can take" (5). While the current trends and phenomena are considered in the first two parts, new avenues are explored in the third and final part, called "Unmapped Territories." Among the contributors to this part are, in addition to the editors themselves, three scholars who also authored other chapters in the volume (Kokkola, Joosen, and Flanagan). The nine chapters that constitute this part are generally shorter and more suggestive than the other chapters. The topics covered range from distant reading to evolutionary criticism and genetic studies. Regardless of the compelling labels, some of the proposed territories turn out to be less unmapped than one might initially think. Several chapters in the volume could be put forward as outstanding examples of academic thinking and writing; Vanessa Joosen's chapter on age studies in children's literature [End Page 69] is a case in point. Its purpose is "to explore how any age influences the human body, mind and behavior and how relationships between generations are shaped" (79). Joosen clearly states the focus of the chapter, maps the theoretical framework, and provides the readers with an instructive close reading of a selected children's book. Finally, the author calls upon other scholars to pay attention to age in children's literature: "children's literature studies needs to draw more on age studies to address the construction of age for young readers if it does not want to reproduce age-related prejudice naively" (88). It has been a true delight for the reviewer to discover The Edinburgh Companion to Children's Literature to be an up-to-date, wide-ranging, and future-oriented companion that can be recommended to a broad audience. It is an inspiring encouragement to map new territories of children's literature or to carefully reconsider and nuance those already sketched. Nina Goga Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Copyright © 2018 Bookbird, Inc.

Var befinner sig den svenska bilderboksforskningen? En kartläggning av bilderboksforskningens etablering och expansion

Title: An Overview of Picturebook Research in Sweden. Establishment and ExpansionAbstract: Picturebook research in the Nordic countries is in a vital and interesting phase, characterized by both established positions and expansion. The article discusses the development in the field, from the stage of initiation in the early 1980s to becoming an established and varied research area. A number of disciplines and lines can be traced in picturebook research today. While some researchers have focused on the history of the media, others have studied the complex relationship between the text and the images or tried to develop the theoretical framework of the medium. Another prominent approach is to investigate what happens in the reading experience and process and how picturebooks might develop children's literacy skills. Despite discipline or focus, picturebook research in Sweden has established itself as a special research field within children's literature research. While mainly discussing Swedish research, the article also attempts to demonstrate connections and differences with the research field in the other Nordic countries.

Recent Trends in Children's Literature Research: Return to the Body

Twenty-first-century children's literature research has witnessed a material turn in strong response to the 1990s perception of childhood and the fictional child as social constructions. Cultural theories have generated fruitful approaches to children's fiction through the lenses of gender, class, race and sexual orientation, and psychoanalytically oriented theories have explored ways of representing childhood as a projection of (adult) interiority, but the physical existence of children as represented in their fictional worlds has been obscured by constructed social and psychological hierarchies. Recent directions in literary studies, such as ecocriticism, posthumanism, disability studies and cognitive criticism, are refocusing scholarly attention on the physicality of children's bodies and the environment. This trend does not signal a return to essentialism but reflects the complexity, plurality and ambiguity of our understanding of childhood and its representation in fiction for young audiences. This article examines some current trends in international children's literature research with a particular focus on materiality.

Research in ActionSerendipity and Children's Literature Research in the Library

Serendipity has become a ‘sine qua non of archival research’ (Tamboukou 151), but it is less clear how it might be cultivated – or even whether such a pursuit is worthwhile. Newcastle University's 2015 masterclass on the place of the archive within children's literature research offered the opportunity to explore the role of serendipity from several perspectives, exposing both the possibilities and the limitations of serendipity in the archive. Paradoxically, serendipity is best fostered by sustained scholarly enquiry, but it also depends on a willingness to move beyond a focus on specific outcomes. This raises questions about the future of serendipitous research in an academic world which allows increasingly little time for exploratory research and about the impact of new technologies.

Family literacy: a project to get parents involved

In this article family literacy as a strategy to address the problem of a lack of preliteracy skills in preschool children will be discussed. A family literacy project developed by the Children's Literature Research Unit in the Department of Information Science. at Unisa in partnership with Project Literacy will be described. This project was started in 2000 in four creches and has now expanded to 19 sites in KwaZulu Natal. Eastern Cape. Limpopo Province and Gauteng. The methodology used and the results from one of the sites will be given. Finally. the role of community libraries in implementing family literacy programmes. and the importance of this as an outreach programme. will be discussed.

Imagology Meets Children's Literature

Since the 1970s, children's literature research has developed a number of approaches, from simple ideological criticism to more sophisticated applications of postcolonial theory, to analyse how, and to what end, members of other national, cultural, racial and ethnic groups are represented in texts for children. However, a field of study within comparative literature, imagology, which specifically addresses the cultural construction and literary representation of national characters in literature, has not yet made much impact. This review article will present its origins and methods of investigation as well as sketch areas in children's literature of imagological interest, which have been or are still waiting to be productively addressed, to show what the domain can gain from this approach.

Fundamental Concepts of Children's Literature Research: Literary and Sociological Approaches. Hans-Heino Ewers. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. 187 pages. USD 76 (hardback).

<i>Fundamental Concepts of Children's Literature Research: Literary and Sociological Approaches</i>. Hans-Heino Ewers. London and New York: Routledge, 2009. 187 pages. USD 76 (hardback).

Fundamental Concepts of Children's Literature Research: Literary and Sociological Approaches (review)

Fundamental Concepts of Children's Literature Research: Literary and Sociological Approaches (review)

Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Children's Literature in America (review)

Reviewed by: Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Children’s Literature in America Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer (bio) Beverly Lyon Clark . Kiddie Lit: The Cultural Construction of Children’s Literature in America. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 2003. The reception of children's literature in general, and the history of children's literature research in particular, are areas of research long in need of further exploration. Clark's engaging study is a detailed and thorough analysis which focuses on the marginalization of children's [End Page 112] literature in the United States, both by the mainstream critical establishment and within the academy. Based on the study of primary materials such as reviews and articles in both the popular press and scholarly journals, lists of recommended books, anthologies, and literary histories, Clark's monograph sheds light on the changing attitudes toward children's literature and childhood in America in the course of 150 years. Whereas children's literature was highly regarded by the nineteenth-century cultural elite, many critics and scholars have been dismissive of this topic since the beginning of the twentieth century, downplaying children's literature as "kiddie lit" and "childish." These devaluative terms reveal fundamental shifts in the assessment of the literary value of books read by both children and adults, leading to an increasing bifurcation of high and low literature. Clark divides her book into eight chapters. In the first chapter she gives a summary of the central theoretical concepts she employs, ranging from reception theory to gender studies, literary studies, and cultural studies. Overall, however, Clark reflects on the causes for the disregard of children's literature by theoretical approaches such as New Criticism, poststructuralism, postcolonial theory, and New Historicism. Whereas these theories reach out across the boundaries marked by gender, race, ethnicity, and class, they generally do not consider age as a relevant analytical category. Even scholars who specialize in feminist studies have rarely recognized the position of the child, although in nineteenth-century literary criticism children's books were often regarded as suitable reading for both women and children. This once-firm connection between feminism and childhood has nonetheless been weakened in favor of an adult-centered perspective influenced by the image of childhood as a stage of immaturity which needs to be surpassed. In the next chapter Clark turns to two key figures in the representation of childhood at the turn of the century. By opposing Frances Hodgson Burnett's bestselling children's book Little Lord Fauntleroy to Henry James' adult novel What Maisie Knew, a text written from the child's point of view, Clark stresses the complexity of the changing attitudes toward childhood. The close textual analysis of these books demonstrates the depth of Clark's understanding of both contemporary literary conventions and the discussion of gender issues. Whereas Burnett's contributions to children's literature were regarded as "great literature," thus stressing her critical acclaim in the nineteenth century, her works disappeared from lists of recommended reading after 1910. In order to gain reputation in the academy, James and his circle stressed the unsurmountable opposition of childhood and maturity, thus supporting [End Page 113] the bifurcation of children's and adult literature. In addition, James's main thesis, which is based on an "incongruity between attention to youth and attention to style" (36), leads frequently to an "invisibility" of children's books in the popular press and in academic and literary circles. Against this background, in the third chapter Clark offers a sketch of the changing institutional frameworks associated with literature, based on an extensive reading of American periodicals from the mid-1850s to the end of the twentieth century and on a concise study of three important literary histories: Cambridge History of American Literature (1917-21), Literary History of the United States (1948), and Columbia History of the United States (1988). America's most well-known literary journals regularly reviewed books written for both children and adults. Clark focuses on the decisive role of Horace Scudder, William Dean Howells, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich, all of whom advocated and published children's literature and contributed to its high esteem with reviews in journals such as Youth's Companion and...

The Historical Process of Children's Literature Research and Academic Studies in Iran

The Historical Process of Children's Literature Research and Academic Studies in Iran

The American Juvenile Collection: a historical study

The American Juvenile Collection, beginning in 1976 and continually growing, is an important Children's Literature Research Collection. It contains juvenile fiction, poetry, fairy tales and folktales published in the USA between 1910 and 1960, a unique period in publishing due largely to sociological factors. This 6,000‐volume special collection, largely first editions, is distinctive and invaluable to both researchers and juvenile literature enthusiasts. This paper describes the inception, development, and current function of this collection, housed at the C.W. Post Campus Library, Long Island University.

Children's Literature Research in Denmark

Children's Literature Research in Denmark

Children's Literature Research in Japan

Children's Literature Research in Japan

Children's Literature Research in Spain

Children's Literature Research in Spain

Introduction

Introduction Maria Nikolajeva The purpose of this new column is to introduce a wider perspective on international scholarship in children's literature to the audience of the Children's Literature Association Quarterly. Recently the International Committee of the Children's Literature Association has taken some steps to bring more international research and criticism to the attention of its members. These steps include special panels and sessions at the annual conferences, a travel grant intended to bring one distinguished international scholar to each conference, and various other endeavors. A vast amount of research carried out in European countries and elsewhere is basically unknown in the English-speaking world. The language barrier is just one reason. It is also the relatively deliberate self-isolation of some nations, often due to historical and political reasons. As a result, scholars focus consciously on their national children's literature and thus develop a sense of self-sufficiency in regard to the development of theory and criticism. There are some obvious parallels within general criticism. For instance, the French and Anglo-American feminist theory developed in happy, almost mutual ignorance. However, by now the two directions have not only discovered each other, but successfully incorporated each other's achievements. It is to be hoped that children's literature criticism can also benefit from a broader acquaintance with scholarly results from other countries and cultures. Starting the column with a survey of German research was a very deliberate decision to highlight the enormous diversity of approaches and priorities within our discipline. From Hans-Heino Ewers' essay we can clearly see that the predominantly text-oriented, decontextualized study of children's literature in the wake of New Criticism, which I find prevalent in English-language criticism, is not the only possible strategy. It is illuminating that the enormous corpus of still uncollected and uncatalogued children's literature written in German stimulates almost obsessive bibliographical and historical research. In fact, annotated bibliographies and historical surveys seem not only to comprise the bulk of scholarly publications, but they also enjoy in the first place a higher status than generic or thematic studies. Peter Hunt has repeatedly questioned children's literature scholars' focus on "books that were for children" rather than "books that are for children" (see e.g., Hunt, "Dragons"). His skepticism is still more relevant for German research that obviously neglects contemporary and popular children's books in favor of old and forgotten texts. Given the political history of Germany in the twentieth century, this scholarly strategy is hardly unexpected. (It reminds me of Mikhail Bakhtin, who preferred to theorize around Rabelais as a way to avoid contemporary ideologically charged literature.) At the same time, the relatively low prestige of children's literature research apparently precludes considering the history of children's literature in a broader context of the mainstream, as do some recent Anglo-American publications, for instance, Introducing Children's Literature, by Deborah Cogan Thacker and Jean Webb. The question that has preoccupied most of the leading children's literature scholars in the English-speaking world, such as Alison Lurie, Jacqueline Rose, Perry Nodelman, Peter Hunt, Rod McGillis, or John Stephens, concerning the definition and essence of children's literature, appears extraneous to German research. Instead, the objective is a meticulous classification and description of a corpus of predefined texts. Thus, German children's literature criticism, as Hans-Heino Ewers himself comments, lacks the diversity of approaches notable in Anglo-American research and gives some directions priority over others. This is perhaps the result of a conscious self-isolation of German scholarship that refrains from acknowledging and utilizing the achievements of international research. But as a result, it appears considerably more consolidated and purposeful, as if working toward the same well-defined goal. In this light, it is remarkable for me as a Swedish scholar to see how influential the Grand Old Man Göte Klingberg seems to be in Germany. Klingberg was the pioneer of children's literature studies in Sweden in the '60s and early '70s, completing the first Swedish Ph.D. dissertation in children's literature, and paving the way for the first generation of serious scholars. While he is still highly acclaimed for...

Children's Literature Research in Germany

Children's Literature Research in Germany

Reading and Use of Informational Material by South African Youth

Research on children's reading habits, preferences, and use of information provides useful insights for those working to motivate children and young people to read and use information. This study, conducted by the Children's Literature Research Unit (CLRU) in the Department of Information Science at the University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria, was modeled on a study of children's reading habits in England conducted by the Roehampton Institute in the 1990s. Findings reported in this article are related to the reading of informational material by children between the ages of 9 and 16 in South Africa. Although many learners in South Africa have limited access to school libraries or public libraries, the study participants had a positive attitude to reading and nonfiction texts. They were developing strategies to deal with information texts by using retrieval tools, and they were prepared to persevere with books even if they did not understand some words. The study shoiued that children's reading interests in South Africa are not radically different from those of children in England. However, because many young people in South Africa read in a second language, information books need to be written with this in mind.

From mythic to linear: time in children's literature

Now available in paperback! In this radically new approach to text typology, Maria Nikolajeva examines the depiction of time in literature for children. Nikolajeva identifies a continuum of texts ranging from those that depict non-linear time, typical of archaic, or mythical, thought, to those that express linearity, typical of contemporary mainstream literature. The author argues that literature is a deconstruction, a displacement, of myth, and that it depicts a symbolic coming-of-age process rather than a strictly representational reflection of a concrete reality. The texts are categorized by the degree to which the coming-of-age process is accomplished; the movement is from an initial condition of primary harmony (Arcadia, Paradise, Utopia) through different stages toward either a successful or a failed passage. From Mythic to Linear is a broad study, encompassing a number of children's novels from different epochs and countries: Scandinavian, British, American, Canadian, Australian, South African, and East European. The international character contributes a better knowledge of children's literature from different parts of the world-widening the horizons of children's literature research too often confined to one particular country. Nikolajeva's unique approach allows her to disregard the traditional, and some would argue obsolete, division of children's novels into realism and fantasy. With its unique approach and broad international scope, From Mythic to Linear will be of interest to all those interested in children's literature and in comparative literature in general. Includes bibliography and footnotes.