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FINAL Current Developments at the Intersection of British Children ONLINE VERSION
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Allalderslitteratur In the previous chapter, we have looked at the changing conditions for an updated canon of British children fantasy literature, its interaction with external influences and the consequences this entails for its content. Another important factor for the current and the future development of the canon is the recent phenomenon of allalderslitteratur. A specific canon for children and a canon for adults do not just differ in their respective contents, topics, literary preferences and priorities but also in their target group. The term allalderslitteratur takes up the new development of the crossing, loosening or even dissolving of borders, in particular that of the increasing fuzziness or even merging of target groups. 14 Kümmerling-Meibauer defines allalderslitteratur as a crossing of age borders between literature for children and literature for adults, which results in the fact that works cannot be easily categorised any more as one or the other, since they comprise both at the same time. The term is either Norwegian (allalderslitteratur) or Swedish (allålderslitteratur) and means that those works that can be classed as allalderslitteratur address all age groups, not just one 14 Kümmerling-Meibauer traces the term allalderslitteratur back to U.C. Knoepflmacher; Mitzi Myers. “From the Editors: ‘Cross-Writing’ and the Reconceptualising of Children’s Literature Studies”. In: Children’s Literature 25 (1997): Special Issue on Cross-Writing Child and Adult, vii-xvii. See also Deborah Cogan Thacker; Jean Webb. Introducing Children’s Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism. London; New York: Routledge, 2002, p. 9. 210 specific one. Kümmerling-Meibauer mentions Jostein Gaarder and Peter Pohl as typical representatives of this approach. 15 In Introducing Children’s Literature: From Romanticism to Postmodernism, Cogan Thacker and Webb also address this phenomenon. They point out that “the attraction of children’s fiction for an adult audience can be seen as part of the postmodern condition.” 16 This means that adults are starting to become genuinely interested in children’s literature, not just as mediators but as readers in their own right. This reorientation is more and more frequently taken up and implemented by the authors of the genre. In contrast to past practices nowadays authors tend to refrain from a certain pinch of arrogance by no longer trying to address adult readers without the child noticing 17 and at its expense. As a popular example Cogan Thacker and Webb cite another example of allalderslitteratur. The ever-present Harry Potter series, which appeals to adults and children, is typical of this new phenomenon. Despite the fact that the series is artificially separated into a children’s and an adult edition by the publishers, classed by the authors as “a cynical marketing ploy”, 18 the popularity of Harry Potter with an adult audience is unfailing. This mutual crossing of borders implies that adults and children explore and test the permeability of their literature in both form and content. Such a reorientation on both sides fuels the debate of the definition of children’s and adult literature and could even suggest their possible merging at some point in the future. Alongside with the literary definition arises the query into the change of the understanding of the concept of both childhood and child on the one hand and that of adulthood and adults on the other. Mortimer also openly opposes any artificial age limits for literature. Supporting the concept of allalderslitteratur, she vehemently contradicts the forcing of the reader into a rigid pattern and points out that the construct of average children does not exist. 19 Consequently, if there is no average child, then there cannot be any average adult, either. Thus questioning the validity of age groups for readers and their arbitrary arrangement and polarisation, Mortimer 15 Kümmerling-Meibauer, Kinderliteratur, Kanonbildung und literarische Wertung, p. 249. Complex novels as rich in content and depth and intertextual as Sophie’s World or His Dark Materials have a wide appeal to all age groups. 16 Cogan Thacker; Webb, Introducing Children’s Literature, p. 147. 17 Ibd., p. 146. 18 Ibd., p. 147. 19 Penelope Mortimer. “Thoughts Concerning Children’s Books”. In: Egoff; Stubbs; Ashley (Eds.) Only Download 1.22 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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